KILLDEER BABIES

A little over three weeks ago (about March 2) Dickie and I spotted killdeer eggs in a rocky area near the local gradeschool parking lot. If you've been reading my weblog, you may recall that there are some pictures of that scene on March 6 below.

We've been monitoring the nest ever since. Today was the day! All four eggs hatched. One of the babies looked a little weak, but it seems to be surviving. What's amazing is how quickly these baby birds have begun moving around. Three of the four are moving around like gangbusters and they can't have been out of the shell more than a day or so. Here's what they look like. I could only catch two of them with their mother:

It was a glorious day today after all the rain, so Dickie and I drove up to Lake Sonoma, a few miles up Highway 101 from Windsor. We took our lunch and had a picnic on the grounds of the fish hatchery below the dam. Later we drove up to the overlook where I took the picture below:

Like I said, it was a glorious day!