[birding] Nighthawks, other Peoria yardbirds

[M & R Campbell]

    Monday of last week (6/8) after dark, I thought I heard something calling faintly on the other side of the river.  The next day we went down to the beach a little earlier, about 9:15, heard it again, and then spotted a couple NIGHTHAWKS flying crazily over the river.  That's the first time I've seen them here.  Maybe I don't get out enough in the summer evenings.

    Those of you who visited Peoria might remember the (ugly) white shop south of our house and the road leading to our backyard.  
There is a nest of BULLOCK' S ORIOLES hanging beside that shop, right over that road, woven into the lower branches of the large birch.  Even though I must have walked under the nest dozens of times, I didn't find it until I heard the begging of chicks last Wednesday.  They're louder, now, and will probably be flying soon.  That same tree hosted an Oriole nest four years ago, and we've been seeing more Orioles every year.  Now it's almost impossible to walk through town without hearing Oriole chatter in half a dozen places. 

    Some of you might remember the Yellow Victorian house south of our house.  A pair of KILLDEER chose the gravel parking area in front of it for a nest site, and made a scrape about 9 feet from Main Street--I suspect because high water covered the gravel beach that they would have preferred.  I spotted the first egg on May 11, and two more appeared within a few days.  These eggs, and the parents taking turns sitting on them--and luring intruders away--became a sight to see among the pedestrians of Peoria.
    I figured that none of the eggs could hatch before June 4, and that they would probably hatch several days later.  This was of special interest to me because I had already set aside the second week of June to reestablish the ditch across the front of that property.  The main drain ran precisely below the Killdeer nest.  We started digging Monday the 7th, at one edge of the property, worked to within about five yards of the nest, then moved to the far end and worked back toward the nest.  The Killdeer tolerated me as long as I didn't come too close, but they didn't like my nephew, who was new to the neighborhood.  Our proximity gave me plenty of opportunity to wonder about a Killdeer's ability to recognize people, and, in general, it seemed to me that they were less likely to be upset by everyday walkers than by first-time gawkers, and they got used to my nephew, too.  (If we strike you as callous for having made the vicinity of their nest site into a work zone, they were considerably less stressed by our constant presence than they would have been by all of the neighborhood cats that we chased away.) 
    The first egg had hatched by 6 a.m. Thursday the 11th, and the next two hatched sometime in the afternoon.  By Friday evening two chicks were up and tottering around looking like dirty cotton balls on toothpicks, and both parents were occupied trying to sit on all three.  Early Saturday morning there was no sign of the Killdeer.  I had expected to see the little ones running up and down Main Street, or, maybe, to find distraught parents.  I couldn't find any sign of either.  So, at 10 a.m. we started digging up the gravel parking area.  Late risers among my neighbors came by to see the wonderfully cute creatures, too, and found only a wide ditch where the nest used to be.  Apparently I am a real heartless bastard.

That's bird life in Peoria.

Randy Campbell
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