Keeping track of our cattle is never perfect, but keeping track of the Killdeer, even for a short time, requires so much assumption and speculation that it verges on fiction. Nevertheless, our Killdeer, defending the eggs in her nest, disappeared with her babies for the creek last week. Due to the drought and a creek that hasn’t run much for the past three years, we’ve had only one Killdeer nesting in our gravel driveway so far this spring.
Robbin noted that one of our pair of crows was carrying what appeared to be the white fluff of a Killdeer chick back to their nest earlier this week. We know how it goes, everyone is someone’s breakfast. But yesterday, crossing the remaining puddles in the creek, we found two chicks and an attentive, adult Killdeer in the cobbles and grass.
Getting two out of four to the creek, 200 yards and across the road, is a good percentage when one considers the gopher snake on the prowl for eggs, the crows and a variety of other predators. It’s a leap to assume this is the same Killdeer, but with no others around our driveway to the house, not as far as you might think.
drycrikjournal 
Excellent photos!! I always marvel at the way killdeer and quail chicks hatch and immediately run at full speed.
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Both born on the run 🙂
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This brought back a sad memory of when I lived in Quebec and I accidentally trod on and broke 4 killdeer’s eggs in the stony garden… 😦
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That’s the downside of good camouflage.
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I hope it manages to keep the remaining chicks alive.
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Probably enough water in pools and puddles until they get full size.
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Great images John! My wife describes them as “those birds with the turtlenecks.”
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