She is pretending to be a wounded bird, hoping to lure us away from her eggs. We begin to look for the eggs. We find them, yep, right in the middle of the track, low enough in the ballast that the previous trains have crossed right over them without any damage.
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Last year we moved a nest off the mainline so that the family could continue to develop without fear of harm from us. So we again determined to do the same. Gary Brothers constructs a small "track nest" about two feet away from the main track.
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Bobby Bridges, contributing more fun to the project, even checks the gauge of the track. Perfect, 7-1/2 inches. Ballast is added and the original conditions are duplicated.
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You'll notice that she has placed her splotchy eggs in some ballast that has a few chunks of coal and some leaves so that they are camouflaged as much as possible. Pia Arrate carefully picks up the eggs, one by one, with a small spoon and transfers them to the new nest.
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The four eggs have been safely transferred to the new "nest" and all looks well. We move away from the nest to allow the mamma to come back and hopefully find her eggs.
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She cautiously moves along the track toward her original nest. She gets to the spot and checks there for a short time and then (above), she spots the new nest. In less than a minute she has moved onto the nest and resumed her duties. For the rest of the day she puts up with us coming by on a regular basis.
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Later in the day, we see another female putting on the "broken-wing, follow-me act" and sure enough, there's another egg on another portion of the railroad mainline.
Check back here for an update on their progress. Better yet, come to the April Run Day (April 20) and see for yourself.
 Photo of the Kildeer on her nest at Caliente during Hurricane Allison June 9, 2001
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