STILL WET

We can't seem to get away from the rain and wetness this year. It poured again last night and is still cloudy this afternoon, although we finally have a little bit of sunshine again.

All the rain frequently kept Dickie and me from our usual morning walks over the past couple weeks. That resulted in our not being able to keep good tabs on the killdeer nest on the local school grounds that I've been mentioning in these blogs.

After missing a day or two, we went by a couple days ago and the eggs were gone. Now we don't know for sure if they hatched or were destroyed. An extra problem with keeping tabs on our favorite birds was the fact that Dickie injured her knee on one of our morning walks the other day, so now, at least for a while, she can't go out with me. I looked around this morning again and found the adult birds, but no babies. I had the feeling there might be a chick or two around because one of the adult birds did a "hurt-wing" act while I was looking around. Here's what it looked like:

That seemed to indicate the presence of a baby bird, but I stood around and took pictures for quite a long time and no young birds showed up, so I have my doubts about there being any. That doubt was reinforced by the fact, when I left the area for a time and returned sometime later, the adult birds had moved to another area. When I approached them this time, they both flew off in different directions. I don't think they'd have done that if a baby bird was near. In any case, we'll keep our eyes open.

There's another killdeer hatching her eggs on the front property of a house a block or two down the street. I took this picture this morning, too:

I can't say for sure if there were eggs or birds under her body. I didn't want to disturb her. She had four eggs the last time I saw the empty nest a couple weeks ago. Her mate was doing a fake injury act today just across the street, so they may have babies already. I'll be checking this nest out, weather permitting, as the days go by. I think it was about a week later than the other nest getting started. I'll let you know what happens.

By the way, Dickie's knee problem hasn't kept her from working away on her latest quilt. It's looking good. She has the blocks hanging on a sheet in our front room. Here's what they look like:

That's it for today!