Field Notes 101 



FIELD NOTES 



HISTORY OF A KILLDEER'S NEST. 



The following notes from my notebook are about a killdeer's 

 nest, which I found in our thirty-acre corn field about one mile 

 northeast of the town of Wall Lake, Iowa: 



June 8, 1911. — I found a killdeer's nest while cultivating corn. 

 The nest was merely a slight depression hollowed out in the ground 

 beside an old corn husk and a piece of stalk and contained two 

 eggs. The mother bird tried to draw me away by uttering all 

 sorts of cries, squatting, fluttering her wings and occasionally 

 spreading her tail very wide in a fan shape. A part of the time 

 two male killdeers were around, but they did not come close. I 

 moved the eggs about twelve feet while I plowed the corn row they 

 were in, then I moved them back again. 



The nearest running water to the nest is about one-half mile 

 away, a small creek, while the nearest marshy places, such as kill- ' 

 deers usually feed in, are over a mile away. Th>'; nearest blue- 

 grass pasture is about one-fourth mile away. 



June 9th. — Found the killdeer absent from her nest at 7:40 a. m., 

 and three eggs in it. The killdeer soon returned and sat on the 

 nest most of the forenoon. 



June 11th. — The killdeer's nest contained four eggs at 6:42 a. m. 

 At 8:30 p. m. the nest contained only three eggs. The wind blew 

 very hard from the northwest all day, but I do not think the egg 

 blew away. 



June 14th. — I found the missing egg about five rods southwest 

 of the nest. As the wind blew from the northwest on the 11th it 

 could not have blown there. The shell was pierced and empty, 

 with yolk stains around the opening. It appears that some small 

 animal carried off the egg and sucked it, although I could not de- 

 termine what, or why it did not return for the other eggs. 



June 18th.^ — My sister and I went out to the nest after dinner. 

 The killdeer left the nest without making an outcry while we were 

 yet about five rods away and did not return until we had gone 

 quite a distance from the nest, when it fiew around us with out- 

 cries and led us further from the nest. It then flew away, but did 

 not return to the nest while we were in sight. 



June 24th. — I saw six old killdeers all in a bunch in the hay- 

 field this evening, which were calling and acting as though there 

 were young killdeer there. (The hayHeld is located north of the 

 cornfield and about one-fourth mile away.) 



June 25th. — I went out to the killdeer's nest this morning. The 

 three eggs are still there and have not hatched. The killdeer has 



