Kildeer nest at work

Kildeer parent doing his "my wing is broken so come get me instead of my eggs" imitation.

Parent with eggs just behind it's feet.

Hovering over the eggs.

About 2 months ago, my friend Pam from work stopped by my office and said she had been seeing a small shorebird with brown stripes across his neck hanging around the back of the parking lot. I thought it might be a kildeer. We looked it and up and she said "That's it."  On my way out that night I drove over to the back of the area (we have 53 acres at work) and parked. I got out and was walking along the pond side and all of a sudden the kildeer went flying past me screaming. It landed in the pond close by and started acting funny. I thought "there must be a nest nearby." I looked around and in the mulch I saw the 4 eggs sitting there. Pam called Laura, one of the resident bird experts, who put out stakes around the nest the next day. For over 3 weeks I drove by there before work and after work checking for babies. I had my camera in the car every day hoping to see little kildeer running around. Pam's mom and aunt stopped by to get pictures of the eggs and we walked out there and the eggs were gone. No sign of broken eggshells. The parents seem distressed. We asked the property management people and didn't get any answers. We think maybe one of the contracted lawn service people might have seen them and picked them up. Not sure why or if this is what really happened but we were crushed. After weeks of peeking over there it was such a let down. Oh well, there's always next year.