Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Killdeer and cactus

This post is basically two photo essays off my beaten path. The first set of photos are of a mother killdeer and her nest in a gravel parking lot; beauty in camouflage. The second, smaller set are photos of the blossom on a cactus start that Rick brought home from a client's; beauty uncamouflaged. Enjoy!




Happy June from . . .

7 comments:

Christine said...

What beautiful "jewels" that bird is wearing. Mother Nature is always the best artist.

Anonymous said...

Hope Mama Killdeer and her nest are tucked safe and sound out of the way... I always thought it was fascinating how they build the nests in the rocks.

Michelle said...

The killdeer is in the parking lot at the Yamhill County Heritage Center; I saw her when I dropped Brian off for a field trip. The volunteers were going to put cones around the nest so she and her eggs would stay safe. :-)

Nellie from Beyond My Garden said...

How lucky you are to have found the Killdeer nest. I am always nervous about searching them out when I know one is near. I have a fear of stepping on the very thing I seek to admire. This was a great series.
nellie

Kelly said...

Killdear are one of the most fascinating birds, (to me) and I never tire of seeing them attempt to lure me away from their nests as they seem to float across the ground.

Susan said...

Beautiful shots, as always, Michelle. I love the Killdeer. I think they are such lovely birds. Flowers on cacti always fascinate me - they seem so over the top!

Tina T-P said...

When we first moved into our place it was a manufactured home sitting on a bare lot (if you can believe that now?) Lots of gravel patches left over from making the septic system, etc. and a mamma killdeer took a liking to one of the spots - the first year we saw the babies about 5 or 10 minutes after they hatched out and kept the cats inside so the babies were safe from being Hors d'Ĺ“uvres Just little puffballs on toothpick legs - they were SO cute! The next year they nested there again, but I think the cats/raccoons/possums? must have bothered them too much because they abandoned the nest. That is why I have a perfect killdeer egg in my egg collection! Nice pictures of both bird and bush :-) T.