seb@mtgzz.UUCP (s.e.badian) (05/08/85)
This Sunday, while at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania(near Philadelphia) I found a very noisy killdeer. It was screaming at everyone who walked through this orchard of dwarf fruit trees. It wouldn't fly very far if you came near it, but it would make an awful racket. I finally found her nest of 4 eggs under a peach tree. They were almost invisible since the ground was covered with pine mulch. When I got within 15 feet of the nest, mama killdeer began to feign injury. She would flap pitifully along, trying to distract me from her clutch of eggs. When I backed off, she went back under the little tree to stand guard over her family. This weekend I also saw two house sparrows mating. The little male would run around the female, chirping away, with his wings drooping down. The female would chirp back and run after him. They finally flew away, presumably to make more little house sparrows. It's always a thrill for me to see interesting behavior like this. It's fun to see birds just sitting in trees or standing around looking bored, but it's much more exciting to see birds doing whatever unique behavior they've evolved. Sharon Badian ihnp4!mtgzz!seb