Hidden Nest

This is the story of how I managed to find this nest of 3 Killdeer Plover eggs hidden in plain sight.

One day when I was out taking pictures with my telephoto lens, I saw this new to me bird scurrying across the ground. It seemed agitated with me being anywhere within 30 feet of it. It was also agitated at the kids playing with their parents in the nearby playground. I knew enough to know that that meant it must have babies or eggs nearby. As I had never seen this type of bird before I had no idea what its nest would look like. So, I kept my distance and my eyes peeled.

I took a few pictures of the bird as it stood and vocalized. Being far away from the bird it was hard to see its surroundings clearly. When I looked at the image I had taken on the screen of the camera and zoomed I found a surprise. I was amazed to see that right there in the middle of the playground where the bird was standing was the nest. Right under the bird! I was amazed at how well the bird’s eggs were camouflaged with the surrounding ground cover. Having never seen eggs laid out in the open like that it was a very interesting find.

I managed to get a few great images of the bird and its eggs. I also told the parents and kids in the playground to try to stay clear of the nest so as not to harm the bird’s eggs or agitate the bird.

Later that night when I went home and was able to download the images if the bird. I did some research and figured out that the bird was a Killdeer Plover. What do you think? Could you spot those eggs if you had not known there were there?