Macro Monday

Macro Monday

Macro Monday

Killdeer at Sherburne NWR

Last week, my father and I took a drive up to Sherburne NWR and had a pretty successful day. At one point as we were driving around the auto tour we pulled off into a viewing area that had a small platform overlooking a pool. As we got out of the car we could hear a Killdeer calling very near to us but honestly didn't think that much of it at the time. So we spent some time on the viewing platform and when we had our fill of cormorants and ducks we headed back to the car. The Killdeer started screaming and we could tell that it was close. It sounded like it was just across the road but we could not find it. All of a sudden my father saw the bird, practically under his foot. It was so close we were actually looking right past it! We immediately backed off and the bird took a few steps to the right and sat down. I started to take some photographs only to realize that this bird was actually sitting on an egg. She had made her nest (for all practical purposes) right in the middle of the parking area! Anyway, we backed away to the car, which was only about 20 feet from the nest, and left the bird alone. Here are the shots that came out of that brief encounter with the Killdeer.

If you look closely in this photo you can see the egg under the bird. Click on the photo to see a larger version of the photo at my Flickr site.

Macro Monday