Egg clutches number three to four (or rarely five) oval eggs, which vary from fawn to white marked with brown to black splotches. They can be long and wide. Incubation takes 19 to 21 days, with both sexes sharing duties, although the male takes over as sole incubator as the eggs hatch and immediately afterwards. This is thought to allow the females to lay and incubate a second brood if the water and food in the lake persists. Parent birds incubate for one to six days before swapping with the other parent. These intervals are much longer than other waders, and thought to be due to the remoteness of food—either the prey are blown to remote corners of the lakes by the wind or the lakes themselves have receded as they have dried. Parents almost always changeover incubating at night, generally within two hours of nightfall, presumably to avoid predators. On hot days with temperatures over , incubating birds may leave briefly to wet their brood patches to presumably cool the eggs or young. Birds on nests always face into the wind.