Duck Tales

Maybe not a duck, but water fowl (sort of) nonetheless. A few weeks ago we heard through the grapevine that our sod was going to be installed in the next few days. Woohoo! No more mud to wash off the boys and way less dust blowing into our house and dirtying up the window tracks. So off we went to the backyard one evening to check things out before the sod was laid and we heard this little Killdeer "yelling" at us. As we got closer we noticed a nest with some eggs in it - right there in the dirt. Well I couldn't let the sod guys (the SGs) come and destroy the nest and eggs so I called the DNR and the following conversation ensued:

Me: "I have a Killdeer nest in my backyard that needs to be moved before the 'sod guys' come in the next day or two."
DNR: "You can't move a migratory bird nest. There is a $600 fine if you're caught disturbing the nest." At this point I was very glad I hadn't identified myself when I got on the phone.
Me: "Well, the sodders are going to come and grade right over it. Wouldn't it be better to move it than have it destroyed?"
DNR: "You could grade and sod around it. Or I suppose you could apply for a permit to move it. Call the US Fish and Wildlife Services for that." This is starting to sound expensive...

So I dialed the number the DNR gave me for the US Fish and Wildlife permit office and got a voicemail. Needless to say, I didn't leave my contact information.

Meanwhile the SGs were here inspecting the yard with Sean and agreed to sod around the nest and then come back to patch the hole when the birds left. So the next day, the SGs showed up and got to work grading the yard.


Once it was graded, they put the rolls of sod onto this machine and rolled it out. You can see the small spot with the birds nest in the lower right hand corner of the picture.


The SGs showed up about 7 am and after 14 hours and a few dive-bombs by Mama Killdeer the backyard looked like this:


So after I rescued these birds I felt a sort of "mama bear" obsession with continuing to protect them (apparently their own mother wasn't good enough). Once the sod was laid, we started to get geese in our yard and they would go right up to the nest and eat whatever it is that they eat while Mama Killdeer squawked and dive-bombed the geese. Discontent with the effectiveness of the dive-bombing, I often marched out into the yard, broom in hand, to chase away the geese. Or sometimes I'd send Jack.

And given that I "rescued" the birds from the SGs and the geese, I felt I had every right to march up to the nest for a look-see and photo session. Here is Mama Killdeer:

Here are the eggs (look on the far left side of the nest):

Mama Killdeer did not agree with me. She's doing a "broken wing dance" in an attempt to distract me from the nest. Apparently since I stopped taking pictures of the nest to get video of this, it worked:

After that, I left her and the babies alone. Then one day I didn't see her on the nest so I went to check it out and she and the eggs were gone. After days and days of tirelessly chasing geese I was disappointed to find them missing and thought surely they had met a tragic end. However as I "researched" (read "followed one google link") Killdeer for this post, I learned that the babies can see and walk as soon as they hatch so I'm reassured that the babies survived and Mama Killdeer simply relocated her family to a more suitable environment. You know, one without loud equipment, SGs, thousands of treacherous geese and two active little boys in close proximity.