Hot day with ospreys, grebes and ducks

Baby Blue!

Baby blue is going strong.  He's such a smart ducky.  He seems to like this one mallard and tends to stay around where he is and goes where he goes.  But, the mallard doesn't seem to like him, much, probably because he peeps like a duckling, still.

I also took a photo of Oreo.  He was hanging out with three of Cinnamon's boyfriends, including her favorite male.

Here's another photo of the Indian Runner who has gotten HUGE.  He's as big as Bigboi now:

Bigboi and his friends were nearby:

All domestic ducks were well and accounted for, including the Pekin who was found way across the lake from where I saw him earlier this week.  He was hiding in the reeds on the lake side.  Since I don't walk over to that area much and he was in a bad spot, I couldn't get a photo of him.

Near Baby Blue, I found these two ospreys.  I think one is a juvenile, but I'm not sure because he could be a male.  I think I heard begging sounds from him, so he's probably a baby.  I don't think they're our resident osprey as both babies are gone, one dead and one with an injured wing and in a rescue facility.

Lots of western and Clark's grebes, too.

Duck update with new dumped duck and baby blue duck

There's a new dumped Pekin duck at Lake Murray who is hanging out near the picnic tables and the Kiowa Drive parking lot.  He was hiding in a thick brush.  I tried to get him out of there and into the water, but he seemed afraid of the water and, eventually, went back into the bush.  He seemed to feel secure there and chatted and bobbed his head at me from there.  I think he might have been in a cage or pen at one time and he feels the bush is secure like a cage is.

Baby Blue is still alive and is very lonely and scared of people.  I think people are being mean to him.

He tries, desperately, to make duck friends, but none of the other ducks want him around because he's still a peeping duckling, though his voice is changing
.

The Indian runner duckling has doubled in size and is huge now!

I saw this very light colored young  mallard that might be part Saxony.  I have no idea where she came from, but she might have been released by a rescue.  Or, could it be one of Big Daddy's daughters?  Or, maybe it's "Hot Duckling" from last year (who was fairly yellow as a baby).

A young male duck, I think it's Fish Food Mama's boy:

This is one of the two boy ducks that were hatched in July.  I didn't get a good photo of the other one:

And, here's one of the lake's oldest mama ducks:

Domestic duck update with baby blue duck

Here's another duck update post, but, first, I wanted to mention a few other things.  The Moffitt's Canada goose (probably a gander) above has fishing line wrapped around his leg so bad that it's cutting into it and causing him to limp.  Several people have tried to catch him, so he's wary.  He has a mate and youngster with him, too.  I would suggest not trying to catch him without talking to people at Lake Murray first because he's gotten wary of people chasing him around.  They may decide to wait a little bit until he's less wary.

While I was watching him approach me, I saw several tiny fish jumping around on the surface of the water.  They're the favorite prey of many smaller predators like killdeer, yellowlegs, and egrets.  This egret, though, got a fairly large fish from near shore, but was having difficulty swallowing it.  I didn't see if he got it down (it's fairly likely he did because herons and egrets can eat fairly large prey) or if the gulls took it from him.  He noticed the gulls doing calls and tried to get it swallowed, though.

Now, on to the domestic ducks.  The duck that was dropped off a couple months ago is best friends with that mallard.  They were even head bobbing at each other.

The "blond" duck is trailing behind the ducks above.  I think he wants to join the "boy band".

Bumblefoot was very energetic and is looking good today, but still limping pretty bad.

Now this is the duckling I'm worried about, the baby blue Swedish.  He's still there, but I think he's not getting enough to eat.  Also, I think he might have some body temperature control issues.  While he seemed fine and normal early in the morning, he was found lying out in the middle of the hot sun near the water's edge (right where a hawk could just grab him) when all the other ducks were in the shade.  Two coots were watching over him.  He also gets picked on by all the other ducks, so he can't go near them.

Edit:

We had a beautiful sunrise this morning and I forgot to post the photos!  We're in for some tropical moisture this weekend:

Ducky update for August

Here's a ducky update for Lake Murray today.  We have a new dumped duckling (above), who is still fuzzy.  He has a raspy peep, so I think he's a boy.  He left with the other ducks and seemed to be calling for someone, but I didn't see any other domestic duckling associated with him.

I think this might be Stretch and his mama:

Mom wouldn't let the Project Wildlife duckling sit near her son.

Pepper is hanging out with his brother.  The Pekins are picking on him.

Cow is still alive.  She's the only female in that big flock to survive breeding season:

And, Oreo has joined the big group of Pekins:

Chocked full of hummingbirds in Julian, CA

There's a store in Julian, CA called the "Birdwatcher" that sells all things related to birds and bird feeders.  They have several feeders located throughout their property and birds are at them all day long.  The lighting wasn't that great for photos for several hours, though.  I have posted several photos I took below.  Forgive me if I mis-match the hummingbird IDs.

When I first arrived, I found a couple of Allen's and possibly one rufous at the feeders.  But, I couldn't get a photo of said rufous.  I did get a photo of a female Allen's.  I say it's an Allen's and not a rufous because of the curve in the bill:

This might be a juvenile male Allen's (or a worn male):

Anna's hummingbirds were very common:

I think this one is an Anna's because of the way the chest looks and its straight bill, but the wings are a bit long.  It could be a Costa's or a hybrid:

Costa's hummingbirds were also very common, almost as common as Anna's.  I think this is a female:

And, I think this one is a male:

There were a few that I wasn't sure, like this one.  It might be a Costa's or an Anna's.  Considering how much white is showing, I am guessing juvenile Costa's.

There were a few black-chinned hummers, too.  This one is a male:

And, this one is a female:

They had seed feeders up, too.  Here are some lesser goldfinches on a Nyjer seed feeder:

I also saw a white-breasted nuthatch, but he didn't stay very still, so the photo is blurry.  Plus, he looks worn:

"Stretch" might have a girlfriend

In my last post, I mentioned a lady who had released (or tried to) release two ducks from the local wildlife rescue agency.  One took off and the other was unreleaseable and was taken back to the lady's home.  Well, I think I spotted the one that took off last week near the boat docks quacking her head off.

When I approached her, she took off again. Definitely was not friendly to people.

This male duck seemed interested in her and came to check her out when he heard her quacking.  I also heard at least one female doing a "mama quack" in answer to hers off in the distance.

Later, she showed up on the other side of the lake and immediately went right up to this other young duck about the same age.  At first, I thought maybe it was one of the family with two ducklings that I originally thought were both boys.  I thought maybe I was wrong about that family and one was a girl, afterall. However, the mother duck, seen on the shore in the bottom of the photo, is the mother of Stretch and not the mom of the two I was thinking of.  Stretch is almost exactly the same age as the new female is.  Mother duck and the female duckling were having an extended conversation, for sure.  The conversation sounded almost like a parent lecturing a teenager, but it looks like she was accepted into the family.  The other duckling never took his head out of his feathers, so I couldn't tell if he was male or female and can't confirm that it is Stretch for sure, yet.

The lady who raised her said the duckling was wild from the start and didn't seem to get along or like any of the other ducks.  But, now it looks like she's might have a new family.  We shall see if Stretch will be her new boyfriend.

Visit to Lindo Lake Park

Today, I went to San Diego's only natural lake, Lindo Lake, to look at the greater white-fronted goose that has been living there, year-round, for some time.  It wasn't hard to find her.  No one knows where she came from, but she's got a good thing living there, so she's staying for now.  Normally, at this time of year, they are just leaving the arctic to travel south and sometimes pass through the mountains in the area.

There were also a couple other surprises such as this baby common gallinule.  He passed right by a turtle who was, apparently, not very hungry (or could have been dead).

The first thing I saw when I got there was stilts.  Lots of stilts:

And, the killdeer were there, too, as one can see in this photo with stilt on the left, killdeer on the right:

Another killdeer.  There were many of them there.  Makes me wonder what's up at Lake Murray when there's so many killdeer here and so few over there:

I also saw a number of phalaropes, too.

A lone juvenile American white pelican:

And, lots of mallards. But, I didn't see any coots.