Ken Lipinski discovered two nests of ground-dwelling birds on recent hikes.

The nest containing three eggs belongs to a killdeer. They were found on the shore of a small lake on Wheeler Mountain.

The nest with four eggs belongs to a spotted towhee. Towhee are also ground nesters but rely on dense foliage to obscure their nest site. This nest is about 20 metres away from the road along Tranquille Creek.

Bird nests are not that difficult to find if you are patient and observe bird behaviour. I found my first killdeer nest (actually three eggs laid in the bare gravel of a logging landing) while tree planting. At the evening campfire that night, I described to the foreman how I had located the nest. Next evening the foreman said that using my tips, he had also found a killdeer nest. Unfortunately, he did not ” find ” the nest until he had stepped on it. A reminder that we all need to walk softly and carefully at this time of year.