“To many people the first bird of springtime is the robin. To others it is the horned lark. To me the sight and sound of the killdeer is the true harbinger of spring. The horned lark arrives in the dead of winter and feeds on seeds, but the killdeer must sense the warming of the earth and the stirring of the insect larvae which form the bulk of his diet.
“Patches of snow linger in the hollows. The smell of earth and moist grass fills the air. The meadows and pastures are tinkling with the sounds of trickling rivulets of melt water. To this is added the high cry, ‘killdeer, killdeer’ . . . the promise that in spite of snow, spring has come.”