Killdeer Nest

The life and times of a killdeer nest are brief.  This nest is/was in our garden.  I was out cleaning up the hoses etc. and killdeer were around.  Then the next weekend I was doing something else and they were still around.  They were herding me and Andy so I decided to try to find the nest.  I had an idea where it was, looked and looked and could not find it.  So I backed off, watched the bird spend time in one specific area, made a bee-line for it, and managed to find it--no easy feat.  I learned that they sort of scrape an area and then bring decor in after the "nest" is made.  I like to think they brought the seeds in.
On Friday, one of the eggs had pipped (started hatching).  The bird inside was peeping.  Had to leave for Aunt Dorothy's 94th on Saturday.  When I returned on Sunday, not a trace of an egg or an eggshell.  Teri soon called and told me where the family was hanging out.  Not the best pictures (too bright, wrong setting, too tiny, migraine, etc.), but it's something.  Our first fledges of the year (assuming it's called fledging when they're born ready to run).  Only saw three chicks--there could be four, but I'm pretty sure there were only three.

Nest when first identified.

Egg on the left has pipped.

Empty nest.

Parent and chick.

Houses 21-30

House 22

House 22 (chickadee nest in early stages)

House 23

House 25

House 27

House 28

House 30

Houses 11-20

House 11

House 12

House 13

House 14

House 15

House 16

House 17

House 18

House 19

House 20

Birdhouses 1-10

For a while I'm going to concentrate on birdhouses.  The garden is fine--garlic up, almost all cleaned up, planted some peas, spinach, chard, kale, lettuce, radishes.  Then it rained, so they should be good.  I've been trying to figure out how to keep records better on the birdhouses, so I'll try the blog.
We've put up a new houses this year, and more coming.  There'll be a map soon.  For now, photos of each house--rather dull, I'm sure but over the years it might make a nice monitoring project.
The big excitement so far is that over the winter a porcupine ate House 22, formerly occupied by chickadees.  And I mean at the whole thing except part of the back that was nailed to the tree.  Shawn says they like the glue in particle board.  Last weekend we put up a new house on a post (hoping it'll survive longer).  I put some sawdust in the bottom because Teri says they like that.  One week later it's full of moss!

House 1

House 3

House 4

House 5

House 6

House 7

House 8 

House 10