With Norm B., I participated in the Jordan Lake (NC) Spring Bird Count on Sunday, May y, 2017. Our Territory was the Davenport Farm located in Lee County on the Deep River (at the south end of Chatham County).
This is a series of pictures of a pair of Killdeer that had made a nest near the side of a driveway.
Killdeer nests are not much more than a scape in a patch of gravel. The property owner told us that originally there were four eggs but that his dog got one of the eggs.
When a predator (or perceived predator) gets too close to the nest, Killdeer engage in a behavior referred to as the "broken-wing display". The Killdeer will move away from the nest and start making noise and contorting its wings to make it appear injured. The Killdeer is hoping that the predator will think that the Killdeer is injured and easy prey and will move away from the nest. Here is a series of pictures of the "broken-wing display".
We saw or heard at least three Orchard Orioles. Here is a nice male which was perched at the top of a tall tree in the bright sun. The bird was about 100 yards away. I am learning to use a new superzoom camera. It is very small but very powerful. So far it seems good for stationary birds. However, I have not had much luck yet with birds in flight.
Indigo Buntings were plentiful and were singing and fighting to establish their territories.
We saw several Eastern Kingbirds.
There was a Spotted Sandpiper on the rocks in the middle of the river.
We saw or heard maybe 6 Yellow-billed Cuckoos. This one just caught a caterpillar.
This Baltimore Oriole was a pleasant surprise.
Along the river at Davenport Farm as a Great Blue Heron rookery. We counted eight nests, most with birds on or near them.
After completing the count, we met up with the other counters at the Jordan Lake Educational Forest . This Cricket Frog was seen near our picnic table.
A pair of Summer Tanagers serenaded us as we lunched.
