May 17

Two rows of lettuce are up nearly two inches on each plant; one row appears to be a regular iceberg, and the other is red leaf, though it may be that the red tinge is only due to their immaturity. Strangely, there is a full tractor width path between where these two rows lie and the start of what will become another plot of some other crop. We’ve become accustomed enough to recognize that this strip must be unused for some reason, and so curiosity got the better part of me, and I interrupted Fred who was working one of the midfield tomatoes.

Evidently, during transplanting, as they were preparing what would have been the third row of lettuce, Fred indicated that he was driving the tractor slowly down the row in preparation, when he noticed a mother killdeer sitting recalcitrantly on her nest of eggs staring down the tractor in defiance.

Rather than disturb the nest, the decision was made to let the row be fallow, at least for a couple of weeks until the chicks arrive.

These killdeer nest every year in the fields, and their markings, eggs, nests and chicks are almost ideally camouflaged in the soil and rocks of the field. Normally, the only indication of a nearby nest is the squawking of the parent, flying away in a wounded fashion so as to lure away potential trouble. When the chicks do arrive, they appear as small brownish puffballs with spindly legs, walking quickly on fast feet. If they stop, they are nearly impossible to see, hidden so well either by their matched coloring or by the fact that their tiny bodies depart from view when they pause at the bottom of the plow furrows.

I suppose in a week or two, when the eggs hatch, we’ll see that fallow row planted.

Notes:

Common cinquefoil in yard

Ruby throated hummingbird appears