Hello! Most of my posts take place around San Diego County, (Mostly Lake Murray) unless otherwise noted.
For more posts and photos, I also post on Hubpages, a site that is a bit different than others. Thanks!: Shorebirdie on Hubpages

Friday, January 24, 2014

The ducks and coyotes are on the move

When I went to Lake Murray a couple of days ago, I've noticed that just about every non-flying duck has moved towards the boat docks where there is the most human activity and lighting.  The only non-flying duck that hasn't moved there, permanently, is the one I call the "fake muscovy" whom answers to the name of "Doug" or "Dougie" in which I will call him from now on.  When I went to the lake today, I noticed that the coyotes are frequenting much of the area around the ball fields where Doug, the "blonde" duck and a cayuga and gray duck used to hang out.  There was coyote scat all over that area.  There are a lot fewer ducks hanging out there now.

Here's some photos of the ducks that are now mostly hanging around near the boat docks and main parking lot.  Six of the pekins are still hanging out around the 2 mile mark, but they sleep near the boat docks at night and leave that area in the middle of the day.

Here is the gray duck and his girlfriend (with an unrelated male in between them) whose eyes have cleared up since I last saw her.



The gray duck who was wandering around looking for other males to wrestle with:



The girlfriend:



Oreo and Baby Blue:


Pepper, sleeping.



I saw this young male killdeer who looks like George III and another male hanging out.  I think the two males are related because when the one male left, the other one called to it in a friendly way.



Today, I saw lots of small birds, including several California gnatcatchers who played games with me and wouldn't let me take a picture of them.  One was singing really loud, too!  I think it was because there was another male across the lake.  He was also mad at all the bushtits using his bushes and eating all the bugs.

Here is a juvenile white-crowned sparrow:



A common yellowthroat:




And, one of the bushtits, a male:


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