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| Killdeer Nest with Four Eggs |
We noticed the bird, a killdeer, hovering around the corner
of our driveway. She would make herself scarce every time we came by.
Since we work at home, “every time we came by” was quite
often.
My daughter Kitten and I were biking together when we first
noticed something was different. The killdeer raised her wings when we came
near, but didn’t move until the last second.
The mama bird was laying four tiny speckled eggs in her nest
in the rocks.
They’re difficult to see.
Nature is clever that way.
The expectant mother bird put on a show every time we
wandered over.
She would leave the nest once we came within a few yards,
and “pretend” to be injured by dragging one wing.
What an actress! She
was trying to lure us away from her eggs.
It’s a killdeer thing.
It didn’t sit right, though. That mama took off whenever we
were near, leaving her nest exposed.
“She’s not much of a mother”, I muttered sanctimoniously one
afternoon as she left the eggs on their own again.
But I came to reconsider that view.
By instinct she had one card to play, and she never ceased
to pull it out.
It might not have been my way, but it was hers.
She was marching to the beat of her own drummer.
We all have a card to play. We have diverse points of view.
We are good at different things.
Our individual differences colour who we are, and as a group provides the texture and the light.
Of course, things don’t always work out the way we might
wish.
Things happen.
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| Empty Killdeer Nest |
Coyotes happen.
Our job or relationship may not always turn out the way we
want.
All we can do is try again next time.
A little wiser perhaps, a little scuffed around the edges, a
few feathers missing.
I’m sure that mama bird will try again next spring.
Maybe she’ll hide her nest better next year. Maybe she
won’t.
But she will try again.
