End of November

We had a little squall of rain pass through at Lake Murray this morning, but it got better later.  It's supposed to rain a little harder in a couple of days.

This is one of the new killdeer which I think is from the family of three chicks.  He was scared of the camera.  He looks like Killer did when he was his age, so I'm sure he's related.  I think he might be either Smudge's son or Killer Junior's son.

I was surprised to see two white-faced ibises fly by, but they didn't want to land.  I think there were too many people around.  They did circle a bit, looking for a spot, but didn't find any to their liking.

Trouble is now almost indistinguishable from the other male mallards.  Here is a photo of him from a few days ago.  I think I saw him today, too.  He knows his name.

Pumpkin (AKA Big Sissy) is doing a lot better and can be seen all the time with her Sissy.  She's molting really bad now, though.

A new domestic duck was dropped off at the lake a couple weeks ago.

This lucky male bufflehead has four girls in his harem:

There go the beautiful bufflehead girls:

For anyone who was wondering what happened to the gull with a broken wing:  I found out that he was rescued last week.  I don't know if anything can be done for him as it was a bad break which has healed, but I'm hoping he won't be euthanized.

A few little birds I found when counting them this morning

Today, I went to Lake Murray and counted the birds.  One of the first things I saw, unfortunately, were the pigeons and grackles fleeing in fear.  I knew the hawk was nearby.  She had caught one of the older pigeons at the lake.  This is a very large female Cooper's hawk that was about as big as a red-shouldered hawk.  A small male adult has also been seen in the area.  

Poor piji.

The kingfisher was being a brat.  He was sitting in a nice, photogenic spot on a tree for a long time, but when I took the camera out, he flew further away.  Here he is over at the new spot:

I saw a female black-throated gray warbler.  My camera wasn't co-operating.  Yes, she is in this pic:

I was surprised to see two American pipits at the lake today:

And, we have a new dumped duck over in Coyoteland.  I hope he learns about coyotes:

Just a little update

Though migration is going strong and there are tons of birds at Lake Murray right now, pretty much blanketing the water and trees, I haven't been taking too many photos in the last week or two.  I should take more.  Tomorrow, I am thinking of doing a bird count, so if I see anything rare, I will try to photograph it.

It looks like Smudge and her mate have three young killdeer with them.  There is either a male Cooper's hawk or a female sharp-shin hanging out in the area. I think it's a Cooper's hawk, but can't really see it because he won't stay still.

These three youngsters are in a fear-crouch.  They were screaming earlier.

Big Sissy has been renamed Pumpkin and she's been out in the open more often instead of hiding in the reeds all day.

Little Sissy is still known as Sissy (she is in the back of the photo).  Yesterday, I was really worried as she was having trouble breathing and was gaping and coughing. She seemed to get better after a few minutes, but I'm still worried.  Life in the wild is rough and one can't stay sick for long out there.

Trouble has found some mallard friends, mostly young mallards and maybe his brothers.

He's still very small, though, compared to the others his age.