Babies From This Morning

I was surprised to see a couple of three week old ducklings all by themselves at Lake Murray, San Diego. I think they are the two ducklings I saw back on May 12th. The mom has been hiding them in the reeds, but somehow, they wandered off on their own. They're much too young to be by themselves. One of them is a boy and one is a girl. Already, Runner Duck attacked one of them, chasing him around. Runner duck tolerated the girl duckling, but not the boy duckling. Poor babies didn't know they weren't wanted near him. Pumpkin seemed a bit interested and "talked" to them a little. I think I heard their real mama call to them at least once.

They were following around the scalped mother duck who had seven ducklings last Monday and now has only three left. I'm betting that she was bedding down at night near where the two older ducklings were hiding. Probably, in the morning, when she did her mama talk telling her ducklings to move on, they began to follow them. However, she really didn't want them around and chased them whenever they got too close  to her babies.

The small ducklings, however, were fearless and not afraid of the bigger ducklings. Here are two of them taking a bath.

Here is the youngest gosling who is starting to get her adult feathers. The other five are fully feathered and getting ready to fly.

And, there are a whole lot of dove squabs at the lake, too. Here are two of them who weren't sure if they had to move or should pretend I couldn't see them.

Down to 2 tiny baby geese and RIP Orea the duck

Unfortunately, the new goose family is down to two goslings and they haven't grown much since last week. All four of them were seen yesterday, doing fine. This morning, there were only two.

I think these parents are the inexperienced ones. Dad is extremely nervous and seemed to be even more nervous today. I'm wondering if someone stole the other two babies yesterday. I was thinking the egret might have gotten them because he's been eating everything in sight. But, he seemed to be going out of his way to avoid the geese, so I'm thinking he's already been thrashed enough by the parents to know better than to try to get their babies.

These two chicks were extremely hungry and nibbling on everything. I think this thing is some kind of cover or tarp used in maintaining the reservoir. It's been there for years and I don't think it's harmful. I'm thinking they're trying to eat the algae growing on it.  The grass has been extremely dry and I think there's not enough nutrition for the little guys. Mom and dad don't seem to know where to take them to find more food and I think they are hoping the humans will feed them.

The other baby geese are about a month old now and getting pretty big.

The baby osprey in the osprey nest are also nearly full grown.

And, finally, Oreo (AKA Tux) the duck went missing two weeks ago, just after his four year dump anniversary. Last time I saw him, he was pretty thin, but seemed to be glad to see me. Usually, he seems annoyed at me and doesn't want his picture taken. Then, he disappeared. I found a pile of his feathers across the lake from where I last saw him in the same spot his best friend, Aflac was killed a few years ago. It looks like he was turned into coyote food.

More ducklings are hatched

A new mama just hatched out six ducklings at Lake Murray right near where Peaches was nesting. I think it might be Peaches's mama.

They are kind of strange looking:

These three got separated and are calling for mama. They had a hard time going over the rocks. But, they made it.

Peaches nearly got drowned this morning with five males attacking her. They were pushing her head down onto the concrete walkway that was under water, making it hard for her to get her head up to breathe. They were also nearly killing Little Guy, one of her mates, who was trying to defend her. But, eventually, they left.

She only has 8 ducklings now, and is still sitting on her nest. I heard a gull got one of the ducklings, yesterday. I don't know what happened today.

For some reason, this one duckling kept biting the mouth of the black and yellow duckling:

Maybe he had just eaten something yummy. He kept nipping at him. Usually, I don't see them bullying each other when they're this young. At this age, they're usually just trying to survive:

King of the rock:

The goslings are growing, but there's not a lot of grass on the lawn. It's not being watered because of the drought, from what I've heard.

Howard's old bullies are outcasts and hanging around the outcast baby geese from last year. I guess they figured they can bully those guys.

I didn't see Uno at all today. Snowie, his mother, was missing for a couple of hours, then she suddenly showed up without him. I don't know if he was hiding or not. Snowie seemed unconcerned, but she rarely is when it comes to her ducklings.

I also saw two baby osprey in the osprey nest and at least one baby heron in the heron's nest.

First ducklings of spring 2015!

First Lake Murray ducklings award for 2015 goes to Snowie, again! She had them about a week or so earlier than last year. There were 13 and she's managed to hold on to all 13 for at least two or three days.

The whole brood together, all 13 of them.

RIP Howard, AKA Picked On, AKA Outcast:

Howard got a broken wing last week and was taken in to Project Wildlife. He didn't survive. This picture was taken on the day he went in to the hospital. He was actually starting to do better and was eating again on this day.

Squeaker and the male of the pair that adopted her look for Howard where he was last seen. Howard helped Squeaker learn how to be a goose and was the one who got her integrated into the group.

Miss Squeaky, the Pekin may need to be rescued, soon. She's getting a bald head. As soon as she starts showing raw skin or bleeding, a rescue attempt will be made. Right now, she's showing a lot of wing itching, probably from being mounted.

Baby season and summer birds

It's baby season and there seems to be plenty of breeding going on at Lake Murray lately.  While I haven't seen any ducklings for a couple of weeks, I saw plenty of other birds.  The baby osprey were flapping their wings and the heron chicks are getting big, though a bit far from fledging.  

Here's the first baby coot I've seen.  I saw one other that was all by himself:

Lots of baby pied-billed grebes around all of a sudden.  My camera didn't seem to like the lighting on these two fuzzy bodies:

Two handsome mallard drakes hanging out.  Most of the ducks I see now are bachelor mallards because most females are nesting.

One-foot ate and drank too much and is gaping because he couldn't breathe.  He was alright, though.

Two newly dumped ducks:

Baby Blue was very interested in both of them.  I think he wanted to fight the male who was much larger than him and he probably wanted the female, too.

I also saw some terns returning, two Forsters and one Caspian.  Bob2 was also there, all covered with spots, but she refused to let me take her photo, as usual.  She used to not mind me photographing her, but I think the increase in activity on the shore has made her weary.

Graphic pic ahead:

I found these pieces of a Cooper's hawk near a tree where Big Mama used to hunt.  I've seen her son and daughter hunting there from time to time.  This might be one of them.  I suspect a hawk or owl got him.  Here is what's left.  You can see the skull with the hooked bill, and part of a wing.

In other sad news, someone told me that they found a large duck carcass near where Oreo hangs out.  She said it looked like a mallard.  Oreo's gang is alright.  I even saw Stumpy, whom I hadn't seen for at least a year.  I couldn't find Buffy's son, though.  Also, two Pekins are missing, possibly Mr and Mrs. Pekin and it's possible that the carcass was Mr. Pekin because some people don't know the difference between a Pekin and a mallard.  But, I suspect that Mr. and Mrs. Pekin are together somewhere, staying away from the other ducks because of the condition of the Mrs who was near death when I saw her.

Snowie's Babies

With the hot weather lately, it meant less gulls flying around trying to snag ducklings and less brooding issues for mama ducks.  So, after 5 days, Snowie still has five ducklings.

Here is one of her ducklings happily diving for food.  you just barely see his feet.

Later, there was a family with a well-behaved little girl feeding the babies.  The little girl wanted to pet the ducks, but her parents taught her otherwise and everything ended up being a great experience for everyone.

The ducklings got so close to me, they were practically running and pecking at my feet.  They were also too close to get a photo.

So, I sat down and took some photos of them:

There was one extra tired one who kept laying down and not eating that much.

Dad Snowy was there, too!  Here's a couple of ducklings hanging out with Dad.

"Look at my gigantic feet!  I'm going to be big!"

A crow came by and Snowie thought it was best to move her babies away.

There was also another family of 7 day-old ducklings.  They almost got mixed with Snowie's babies and Snowie attacked one of them.  But, it was OK and went back to his mama.

For some strange reason, the baby coots were all by themselves.  I have no clue where their parents were.

The two ducklings that the kids were throwing rocks at last week were found in another area alive and well.  The smaller one has almost caught up in size to the larger duckling.

We still have one ruddy duck at the lake and it's getting more active.  I thought it was an old male because it seemed to be getting into its breeding colors, but was not able to do so.  But, now, I think it might be a female.  She was flapping her wings a lot and flying around near the coot family (who have one chick).  I think she was lonely and, maybe, a little warm.

I also wanted to mention that I found this southern Pacific rattlesnake right at the bench where the crowd of kids were throwing rocks at the ducks last week.  Most people didn't see the baby snake and he was really sluggish.  I prodded him with a stick to see if he would be annoyed enough to move more into the brush, out of sight. (That is why he's in a defensive posture) But, I think he was just too sluggish and I didn't want to push my luck and get bit, so I let him be.  He did move a few inches over near where there was more grass.

Several minutes after I left him, a lady who frequently walks her small dog at the lake on one of those retractable leashes (and finds it fun for her dog to chase ducks and harass the geese as well as letting him run all over the place almost uncontrolled), sat down at the bench.  Fortunately, she held the dog in her arms while she sat on the bench instead of letting him run around like she usually does.  I don't even think she ever saw the snake.

There were only a couple of ducks in the area and when one flew and landed in the water near the bench, another female came up and fought with her, pushing her out of the area.  Then, they both moved away and were fine with each other.

By the way, baby rattlesnakes are a lot more dangerous than the adults due to the fact that they haven't learned to control their venom output.  I also heard another rattler around the 1 mile mark about 5 feet off the path.  The rattlers are having babies just like everyone else.

In other news, I thought I heard "family calls" from the killdeer in the ballfield area.  I think that Squeak and Pollux might have had babies and I'll check it out next time I'm there.  Also, Fish Food Mama's babies are breaking up and some of them are out exploring.  And, Bigboi and Bumblefoot are doing better than expected in the hot weather.  Both ducks have health issues that make me worry about them.

And, a reminder, there is NOT going to be any fireworks at the lake this year just like last year.  I don't know about next year.  No musicfest, either.  I'm not sure about any fun-runs.