06/27/2025
Family Reunion in the Dunes
On the beach, a huge crowd had gathered. Music played loudly. Parents cheered on their children – over here in a volleyball tournament, over there in a soccer match – a festive family day. But it was a day that nearly turned deadly for a young Killdeer – a type of plover that lives in the dunes.
As parents focused on their older children playing sports, the younger children were left to themselves to explore the dunes, where they found – and kidnapped – the hatchling Killdeer, apparently thinking of it as a plaything.
Killdeer forage and nest in areas of open ground: fields of short grass, gravel parking lots, or as in this case, sand dunes. Their nests are usually simple, shallow scrapes. The buff-colored eggs are protected by both their camouflage and the famous “broken-wing” display of the parent birds to distract would-be predators and lead them away from the nest.
Precocial birds, Killdeer emerge from the egg covered in down feathers and with eyes open. They are able to run around and begin self-feeding immediately after their feathers dry from hatching. Importantly, however, a hatchling depends on its parents and family to learn survival behaviors. It was fortunate, then, that a surfer discovered the children “playing” with the little bird and brought it to lifeguards, who knew to call PWC. Indirectly, the life saved that day by the lifeguards was not a drowning swimmer but a small wild bird.
Rescue/Transport Team members Kathy Simpson and Morgan Nolan were sent to retrieve the hatchling and bring it to the clinic, where it was given a check-up and placed in an enclosure with a mirror (so it might see one of its own kind) and appropriate food. Unfortunately, the little bird didn’t eat well in care.
Renesting and reuniting young wildlife is more than possible. It is crucial to many animals’ chances of survival and is a top priority whenever possible. The decision was made to try “re-homing” this bird.
The next day, without the music and crowds, the beach was quiet. Clinic Director Vann Masvidal, carrying the box with the little Killdeer, joined Simpson and Nolan, who sat at a distance among the dunes, scouting out a spot where the bird could be released. With binoculars, they followed the path of an adult in flight who landed near the lifeguard tower. Then they saw two chicks similar in age to the kidnapped hatchling.
Masvidal made a quiet move toward the area to release the bird. The adult Killdeer appeared to lead him away, pretending to sit on a “nest.” (Was this a variation of “broken-wing” display?) However, when he opened the box near this spot and the chick hopped out, both birds started calling to one another. The chick immediately ran over the dune to join the adult.
For the human parents of the small kidnappers, it was a missed opportunity to teach their children valuable lessons in empathy, appreciation for other species, and the importance of keeping at a distance and not touching wildlife. For the Killdeer family, though (and the caregivers at PWC), it was a successful, happy reunion.
✍️ Pam Hartmann
📸 Morgan Nolan
