Return of the killdeer
Dwight Otwell

From the Porch

What joy! The killdeer are back.

A few weeks ago I wrote a column lamenting that I feared the killdeer weren't coming back to the Sentinel's back parking lot. I was even growing jealous that a killdeer, perhaps our Dove, was taking up with a high school right fielder.

But the personable birds are back and up to their old antics. We named the killdeer that appeared in our back parking lot a few years ago Davie and Dove.

These birds don't try to hide. They strut around the parking lot calling loudly to whoever will listen. The other day I saw one of them (I couldn't tell which) splashing happily in a puddle of water made by the absence of a chunk of concrete in the parking lot.

The next day, both were out back and they let me walk within a few feet of them. They looked at me and made their harsh, piping sound. But if I tried to get too close, they walked slowly away, keeping just far enough away so that I couldn't grab or pounce on them. One would sit down and rock and spread its wing acting as if it had a broken wing. They were leading me away from their eggs, although I haven't yet discovered where the eggs are.

Anyway, I had feared that we wouldn't see the killdeer this year, but they must really like our parking lot. They show up every year, build a nest, have about four chicks and keep them safe by luring any would-be predators away by acting like they are injured and keeping just far enough away to retain the supposed predator's interest.

Also, I now believe that it wasn't Dove who strode around in right field keeping an eye on the high school right fielder. That was another killdeer - I'm sure of it.

It won't be long before we will see little killdeer chicks running around. They will leave the nest (or in this case the parking lot) about a month after they are born. How's that for quickly getting your kids through the teenage years?