And The Award Goes To

[Henry]

I suspect a large number of parishioners going into St. Lukes have been entertained by a bird, I believe they call a sandpiper.  It apparently has a nest in the flower bed in front of the church and whenever anybody goes by, it starts doing all kinds of antics to distract you from her nest.  Strangely enough I watched it pretend it was injured with a broken leg as she tried to call anyone passing away from the area - Wished I had had my camera.

[Henry]

Not easy to see, but the nest with one egg that the sandpiper was trying to distract me from is right in the middle of the photo:

[7F24]

I think your bird is a killdeer.

[Henry]

That's the one I was thinking of

[Henry]

Went and checked in Maryann's Bird Book and definitely a Kill Deer.  Wondered why it was called that and according to the book it says when they chirp it sounds like they are saying Kill Deer.  It also says that they usually have 3 eggs, so maybe a couple more will show up in the nest.  Looks like an awfully big egg for such a small bird.  It also mentions how their favorite tactic is pretending to have a broken wing.

[Henry]

Hi Henry,
The kildeer have such large eggs, because the babies need to be fully able able to run with the parents within a short time of hatching, (within a day). They are not helpless like robins and bluebirds and such.
Not much protection in a nest on the ground, only their parents antics in trying to lure you away from the eggs.
JoAnne

[MikeF9]

There are killdeer over at school. They make their nests on the roof.
One day I was near the back door of the highschool, when one killdeer was having a spastic attack. Couldn't figure out what was wrong because I couldn't see a baby anywhere. This was back in the day when we used to prop open the outside doors to let air through. Walked into the school, and a baby had wandered in and got lost. I picked it up, and took it outside. Explained why the bird outside was overly active.