Just Heavenly…
btw what bird is your avatar?
May I field this one? That, jw, is a Kildeer. So named not because they enjoy venison, but because that is their call. Very loudly and incessantly. Usually when a certain badger is trying to take a nap in the grass.
T
yep…wiki wants a second “l”…
Adults have a brown back and wings, a white belly, and a white breast with two black bands. The rump is tawny orange. The face and cap are brown with a white forehead. They have an orange-red eyering. The chicks are patterned almost identically to the adults, and are precocial — able to move around right after hatching. The Killdeer frequently use a “broken wing act” to distract predators from the nest.
That’s because they nest in the grass. If an adult starts running around in circles on the ground in front of you with one wing cocked at an odd angle yelling kill-DEER kill-DEER you know you are pretty close to the nest.
djm
that would have been what was going on, eh!
They’ve nested near the southwest end of the outdoor arena and we were working a horse there. I was taking pictures while the wife drove the horse. (what is where all of my bird avatars have come from…I get distracted, it’s spring, there are quite a few of 'em.)
was right after the bird strafed them and was doing the broken wing dance.
some others:
So, as long as you have your camera, the sheep are safe(r)? 
djm
the sheep are a bit boring, however, if you would like I could snap a few of them for you latter.
The neighbor has a dark one and a light one.
Do you have a preference? Both?
Sorry, I’m allergic to wool. They’re all yours. 
djm
the great valerio is walking…
It’s almost a shame to post to this thread and break up
the avian avatar stream, but I’m just that kind of guy…
not a problem!
the neighbor has two sheep,
ya want light or dark big guy?
Killdeer eh?
It looks a bit like a sandpiper but the behaviour is exactly the same as the spurwinged plover (aka Masked Lapwing) we get 'round here.
They nested in Aunty G’s front yard a couple of year’s back:
"The plovers have managed to sit on their eggs for 22 days and have two fabulous fluffy chicks. For the whole month that they spent on or around their nest any movement in the yard was challenged by them. They’d run off to Uncle R’s block or under a bugwood tree, trying to distract us from their nest. Initially, they’d pretend that they had a broken wing but as hatching time grew closer, they’d spread their wings out to display the spurs on their “elbows” and squark quite threateningly. Thy only divebombed Aunty G once - when both she and I tried to approach the nest at once to see if any of the eggs had hatched. One bird seemed to be trying to land on Aunty G’s back - fortunately she couldn’t see it but it was rather frightening.
Finally 'though, the eggs did hatch and, from day one, each chick was fully fledged and fending for itself. The parents, who had taken it in turn to sit on the eggs, never let the chicks out of their sight and have special warning calls to instruct the chicks to drop to the ground and freeze when danger approaches.
Now that the chicks are mobile, the family is roaming all over the place. This morning one of the chicks wandered onto the road outside K, the fisherman’s, place. K strode out to rescue it - the plovers weren’t happy and flapped and squarked - but K paid not attention and just gently scooped the chick up and put it safely on the grass.
It takes a village to raise a plover…"
PS: Thanks for the new word - precocial - I wonder if it means that the chicks are precocious?
JW
Don’t know why I didn’t think to look for this earlier. Here’s a very good clip of adult killdeer feigning injury to distract predators from their young:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5nmzi_mlFXQ
djm
They love to nest along the side of our gravel road. They can startle the heck out of you, as they are very well cammoflaged, and wait until the last second to fly up and ‘distract’ you from the nest. Between them and the Mourning Doves, who love to sit in the middle of that same road (not to mention the possums, frequent loose cattle, more frequent herds of deer, and the occasional skunk, it’s a high attention drive! 
Oh… and the neighbor’s dog that loves to race you down the road, and the cats who have found a prime hunting spot at the corner of the dirt road and our driveway.
They are reminiscent of sandpipers. The way they move is very similar too. The first time I saw one, I thought ‘what the heck is a sandpiper doing out here?’. One trip through the bird book solved that. 