Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)

While I was out at Esquimalt Lagoon the other day I was happy to see a very old friend, the Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus). I say old friend because I remember someone explaining to me when I was very small that the limping, wing-dragging bird I was following was perpetrating a ruse, that it was not wounded at all but was pretending to be in order to lure me away from its eggs or young ones. I think that was the first time I realized that animals too had intelligence and feelings. Of course this behaviour might be genetically programmed but even then it's a tribute to the complexity and functionality of evolution.