Concrete Crop Circles

A few weeks ago I was out in the country at the little church where my grandparents are buried (along with a few dozen other relatives and ancestors). If you look in the bottom right corner of the above picture, you can see ...



a killdeer, which had made a nest nestled against a footstone. Killdeer are quite pretty birds, with the distinct black and white bands aroung their necks and red around their eyes. When I started approaching the nest, the killdeer let out a cry. Its mate answered and put on quite a show for me.



When its young are threatened, killdeer attempt to draw the predator away by holding its wings akwardly so they look broken, pretending to be easy prey. When the killdeer wasn't putting on the broken wing act, it would run away from the nest a few feet, then turn and make sure I was following before running another few feet.