Posted by olivia eilers on June 17, 2007

Q: we have killdeer in our driveway.

whenever we drive away we always see them running down the driveway, now I know why- to distract us from their nest. well, we found the nest and i went up to take a look. there were two eggs, but i didn't touch them. the mother was not too far away, down the driveway, doing her wing act. i'm pretty sure she saw that we had found her nest. about 6 hours later we checked the nest again and as we came near to where it was, we didnt see her anywhere. she was simply not there. we went to the spot where the nest had been and the eggs were gone!! Is it possible that the mother could have moved her eggs because she knew we had found the nest? or did she abandon the nest alltogether and perhaps a predator stole the eggs? we miss our killdeer friends and are very puzzled. we didn't mean any harm looking at the nest and we only wanted a look. please help!

Habitat: suburban/yard

State: New York

Habitat: suburban/yard

A: Sounds like the nest is lost, I'm afraid. Killdeer don't move their eggs from one location to another and so it's quite likely that a predator has taken the eggs. Different kinds of predators are known to follow in the footsteps of humans, kind of checking out what they might find. There's no way to be sure but some predator MAY have "keyed" in to your movements, but maybe not. In any event, the female may renest elsewhere. Don't beat yourself up over this and in the future if you find a nest, observe from afar. Thanks for asking.

John Wiessinger ( June 18, 2007)