Killdeer flock, Palmer's

A couple of dusks ago, I heard the first Canada Geese honks, and I thought I might be graced by the sight of flocks of the big birds moving out of the newly cut corn fields and heading towards the nearby lake. After a few minutes of waiting for sky drama, I realized that the geese were perfectly content with their corn stubble surroundings, and if I wanted to see the birds, I'd have to head to where they were busy with the harvest after the harvest. Today, I hiked down to the shorn fields, but there weren't all that many geese present, certainly not as many as would be in residence shortly. There were, however, shorebirds called Killdeer eating their fill. Killdeer are among the first migrants in the spring, and they're sometimes passing through while there's still snow on the ground. With their double, black neck rings, they're unmistakable, and even though we only get one or two at a time, they're so noisy, repeating their name over and over, that you can't miss them. But on the return migration, even though they seem to travel in larger groups, they're much more quiet and their plumage is fairly subdued. I almost overlooked them as they sat still on the ground. Once in the air, it was a different story.