Killdeer kills mini-forest planting date

Roger Varley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A planting party scheduled for the Rotary Club's mini-forest at the Fields of Uxbridge has been delayed - by a bird!

Dr. Michael Banh, who has been heading up the club's mini-forest program, said the planting had been planned for this Saturday, July 5. However, the work has been put off until July 26 because the club doesn't want to disturb a migratory bird.

The bird in question is a killdeer which is nesting close to the mini-forest. The Rotary club is hopeful that the bird’s eggs will have hatched by that date and that the little family will move on.

Killdeers' breeding grounds are generally open fields with short vegetation; although it is a shorebird. The bird lays four to six eggs, with the breeding season occurring from mid-March to August. Both parents incubate the eggs for 22 to 28 days typically. The young stay in the nest until the day after being hatched, when they are led by their parents to a feeding territory.

A couple of weeks ago, Rotary installed three pocket forests (smaller than a mini-forest) at the King Street Parkette.