A Rock Nest

 Every year we have Sandpipers building their nests in our yard. Usually, they build them out in the grape field and we don't see much of them. This year, a mama bird chose the rocks on the berm between the backyard trees and the barn to make her nest. As you can see, the egg's camouflage is working pretty well.

It's a high travel area, with us walking back and forth between the house and the barn, and even the occasional car or truck drives back there to hitch up a trailer.  The mama bird holds her own and stays right on those eggs unless someone walks too close, then she screeches away until it's safe to come back.

We let her be as much as we can. Bruce will sometimes put up an umbrella in the afternoon to shade her from the sun. We're worried that this one will discover the nest:

But since she spends most of the day sleeping in the shade somewhere, we don't think she even knows the nest is there. Bruce did some research on Sandpipers and apparently their babies can run as soon as they're born, so I can't promise baby bird pictures. I hope the eggs hatch soon because it's kind of stressin' me out.