Great Blue Heron Keeping an Eye on Things

Dick Adams (1940-2013) was the Program Chairman for the Kern Audubon Society and to reflect his love for birding and to honor his memory, Audubon members chose to plant an elderberry, whose berries are a prime source of food for birds.

Here we see Harry Love driving in a post with a plaque to Dick Adams and in the middle of the cleared space is a young elderberry enclosed in chicken wire;  by this time next year it should be 5 feet tall.

After all eggs are hatched, the nest is abandoned and looks as if nothing had ever happened there.

Killdeer parents do not allow shell to remain in the nest.

KILLDEER CHICKS ARE PRECOCIOUS

As the eggs get closer to hatching, the parents become more attentive and also very vocal.   There is the usual, familiar  peep-peeeep, but other sounds in which they seem to be voicing their agitation with intruders and sending other signals.  From the beginning, both parents have taken turns in tending the eggs.