The
killdeers have returned. We actually heard one last evening while hunting for
the comet. Among the chorus of evening sounds, a modest prelude to what we will
hear in a month or so after sunset, a lone killdeer trilled its insistent tee
tee tee tee, over by the lower field that is still covered in snow.
I think
of the killdeer as a comical bird of summer, walking briskly on two spindly
legs among the raised beds of the planted fields, staying just ahead of the
tractor or walker. It is a mystery why they prefer the open fields as nesting
sites, where all manner of dangers are a possibility.
I
imagine it is the males that have arrived, with the females soon to follow, waiting
for the weather to warm and the fields to be turned so that they can commence
in building their exposed rocky nest.
We will
hear and see much more of them as the spring ensues.
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