Find the Killdeer in This Picture, 2010

There are six killdeer in this photo, cleverly camouflaged in their natural living and nesting habitat of rocks and pebbles in moving water.

I had focused on one of the birds, and saw a few others, but it wasn’t until I downloaded the images and opened them on my monitor that I saw all the others. Clever camouflage!

I took the photo along Chartiers Creek in Carnegie.

A story about killdeer actually inspired me to set up this daily photo blog, and they are the subject of my very first post on this blog: http://bernadettestoday.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/a-fathers-day-drama/. All birds are the centers of their own universes, but the killdeer’s self-absorption is comical—the parent birds do the “broken wing” routine with suspected predators, and it’s not at all convincing, especially when they are nesting in the gravel of the train tracks that run right through town. But I will admit, they are darned difficult to spot if they’re not moving.