Pip – Puzzle Solved

In my last post, I mentioned that our smallest killdeer chick, Pip, was discovered first thing in the morning nearly dead in the mealworm dish. The birds were on the lanai and it dropped into the 30’s that night. We have a heat lamp running and the temperature under the lamp was 82 degrees. The mealworms are near, but not under the lamp. We could not understand why Pip would get a midnight snack and then stay in the bowl until the weather got to it. In addition, there were mealworms strewn about outside the bowl. That was odd.

Today, after checking on the chicks as I do many times during the day, I found Pip in the mealworm bowl. The chick couldn’t get out. See the following video. This would explain why the chick nearly froze and why there were mealworms everywhere. I had no idea the bowl could be a death trap.

I am trying something else. I need a solution where the mealworms can not get out but the chicks can.