World Shorebird Day and Trouble Update

Yesterday was the very first ever celebration of World Shorebird Day (though I've seen in some places that it's official the 5th, but celebrated the following weekend).  People were asked to count birds from the 5-7. I went to the lake on the 6th early in the morning, but found no shorebirds.  Today, I went to Fiesta Island in Mission Bay and found several shorebirds.  Luckily, I went before the crowds came in.  It was already crowded with thousands of people and I could see thousands more coming in.  The shorebirds I saw today probably moved to another area after I left.

Marbled godwits and willets

I did a quick drive around the island, stopping at various points to check out the birds.

Black-bellied plover

2 Godwits, I'm thinking 1  might be a juvenile

Short-billed dowitcher amongst the godwits

Western sandpipers

Male and female horned larks

Heermann's gulls

Another Heermann's gull

There were absolutely no ducks or terns on the bay at all, at least in that area.  It was probably a good thing because there was about a hundred speeding watercraft out there.

Back at Lake Murray, the ducks are plentiful.  I took all these photos on Labor Day.

Snowie in her fresh molt

Both sister ducks are seen together a lot, but it's still hard to photograph both of them together.  Here's Big Sister.

After about two weeks of not seeing him, Trouble came up to visit me.  The thing is he was sneezing and his eyes were irritated.  The right eye looked only slightly irritated, but the left one was obviously sore.

He still has his long, yellowish legs:

Trouble couldn't resist rubbing his left eye constantly to the point where it was swollen and red.  I'm thinking the algae in the lake where he hangs out was irritating them.  His nares actually looked clear and clean, not like he has a cold.  His eyes were a little drainy, but not draining mucous.

One good thing is that he now has all his feathers and can fly, but I don't know how well he can see with his irritated eyes.  I didn't see him yesterday, but I hope he's OK.

Trouble still stays within visual contact with his family.  Here are two of his brothers nearby.