Great Lakes region, USA. April 2026.
Every time I hear a killdeer I track it down to see if I can get the infamous riding shot. I thought it might happen here, but no. This was a group of three killdeer roaming this open field for food.
Great Lakes region, USA. April 2026.
Every time I hear a killdeer I track it down to see if I can get the infamous riding shot. I thought it might happen here, but no. This was a group of three killdeer roaming this open field for food.
When I was a kid, my hometown was ~5-10 miles from one of the U.S. Great Lakes. I road my bike to the library one day, checked out some books, and set up outside in an old disused train station that had been converted into a sort of park. That parts relevant because of the piled up mound of rocks that made the track foundation meeting the grass.
As I read, I noticed a bird landed pretty close to me, I was thrilled to be watching them! But then I noticed it seemed to be limping, it’s wing was broken. There was a vet not to far, so I went into my backpack for a sweatshirt, and figured I might be able to safely wrap him up, and take him to the vet, who probably knew the number of a wildlife rehabilitation center or something.
As I approached with my sweatshirt though, it took off! Must not have been that hurt after all… I kept reading. The bird showed up again, it must not have been able to fly to far! I tried again, again it took off… repeat for hours until eventually, having made very little progress on my book, I went home.
… It was around a decade later I learned about the “broken wing display”. He was probably as confused as I was.
Isn’t it cool? What an interesting defense mechanism. They said, “screw building a nest that’s defended from anything. We’ll just fake like we’re wounded to lure predators away from our nest.”