One of the early birds to return from the south in the spring is the killdeer, but this year the killdeer arrived later than bluebirds. Although with the colder forecast for next week, all the southern arrivals may decide to head back.
Killdeer Returns
More snow melted over night with the temperature staying above freezing as more birds have returned giving more hints of spring coming. The geese have been flying overhead while the red-winged blackbirds are singing down by my pond, even if the pond still has an ice layer yet. And while it is hard sometimes to spot the killdeer, their call has announced their arrival several days ago. Killdeers will display the broken-wing act when predators get too close to their nest.
Killdeer Returned
I think the cold, wet weather has delayed some of the spring bird arrivals, but the Killdeer has been back for a while now. I always hear the Killdeer long before I see it and when I see them, it is normally in flight as they blend in with the ground cover even with their white band. Early naturalists called the noisy bird the Chattering Plover and the Noisy Plover.
Hidden Killdeer
Weather folklore says, “Spring will finally arrive after three snows on a robin’s tail.” Some people in the area have spotted some robins back, but I haven’t yet so I don’t know if the saying counts if it snows on a killdeer tail instead since the killdeers have returned. I rather not wait for the arrival of the robins if it snows this coming week and it doesn’t count towards the number of snowfalls needed on a robin’s tail.
Snow on Bird’s Tail
The last couple of days the birds have been singing more, maybe since the temperature was above freezing. But one of those singing birds was the killdeer who hasn’t headed south yet. They are one of the early birds to arrive in the spring and I wonder if they need their tails snowed on x number of times before they decide it is winter and need to leave. The saying about the robins getting snowed on three times before spring is finally here apparently isn’t the same in reverse for the killdeer as they have been snowed on more than three times and it is snowing again tonight.
Delayed Departure
The winter birds were not singing the spring songs as loudly today in the mostly cloudy day. The red-winged blackbirds are often one of earlier arrivals as well as robins and killdeers. This killdeer can blend in with a plowed field and lays its eggs in a depression in the dirt (or cow pie) but right now the fields are still covered in snow. So it may be a few more weeks before seeing any spring arrivals.
Killdeer Blending In
The Killdeers have been back for several weeks but hopefully they haven’t laid their eggs yet since a rainy/snowy stretch is coming up. A shorebird, who rarely spends time on a shore, but instead is found in pastures, fields, sandbar, driveways, gravel rooftops and golf courses. Course gravel rooftops are dangerous for the young when the adults lure the babies off the roof and at the cheese factory, we would try putting cushion material down when they started to jump off the roof.
I generally see them in the pastures and watch their broken-wing act to lead me away from their nest, which is often in a dry cow pie, but the broken-wing act doesn’t keep the cows from from stepping on the eggs so they will use a different tactic. The Killdeer will fluff itself up, display its tail over its head and then run at the cow to attempt to make the cattle change its path.
Killdeer get their name from the shrill, wailing kill-deer call they give so often and were also called the Chattering Plover and the Noisy Plover.
Noisy Killdeer
