THis male is watching the nest. Yes that’s the nest…a lil indentation in the dirt. Look closely and you’ll see TWO chicks. The big one on the right and the the lil one on the left. Our naturalist said that the eggs are often hatched two to three days apart. The first one gets a big head start. This one kept snapping at the lil one and he even pushed him out of the nest. He crawled back in. The naturalist said that there is an imaginary 18″ around the nest hole that they will protect the baby in. If it’s outside of that range they usually won’t defend it and the predator birds will eat it.
Fascinating.