Rattlesnake and bird count

I counted the birds yesterday, but found nothing unusual.  Because I have limited time and have to cover a long distance, I often don't see "details" with the birds.  I plan to do a stationary count a little later to get a more thorough look at the birds in the area.  However, there were a LOT of mallards and way more coots than there used to be.  So, I think migration is beginning.

I got a report of two rattlesnakes on the road, but I only saw one.  I think it's a southern Pacific rattlesnake.  Here is the picture of him:

Everyone stopped to enjoy the snake crossing the road.  Then, some guy on a bike tried to run it over!  What a jerk!  The snake ended up going into the brush to hunt rats and mice and maybe a towhee or sparrow.  I didn't see the other snake which was said to be much larger.

Ducky Ducky is starting to look a little better and I caught her having a bath yesterday with her boyfriend.

I also found Troublemaker, the duckling.  He looked like a ruddy duck when I first saw him.  Mama duck seems really frustrated with him because he's a bit disobedient.  He's lucky to have a mother like him.  Most female ducks would have given up on him long ago.

Woman releases pet parakeets at Lake Murray:

I got a report that a woman has released a lot of parakeets at the lake on possibly two different occasions.  One was re-caught, but I haven't seen the other ones.  Two hungry Cooper's hawks have been hunting in that area.  Seriously, don't release your pets there.  It's not safe.  If you loved your animals, don't do this to them.  The animal shelter will take in birds and they don't euthanize the well behaved, healthy ones.

Cooper's hawk waits for finches; result of bird count

Every night, about an hour before sunset a couple dozen finches sit on the TV antenna on the building next door and about a dozen sit on the antenna on our building. They gather there and then go to their night-time roosts.

Well, last night, there were no birds on that one antenna next door because a Cooper's hawk was up there waiting for them. It's a large antenna, that's why the hawk looks so small. It's actually a pretty big hawk:



It was funny seeing the finches zoom past that antenna, hoping to gather there, only to see the hawk. A crow was flying in that direction, but when he saw the hawk, he steered away. It's funny that crows will mob other hawks, but stay away from a Cooper's hawk.

Instead, the finches gathered on my small TV antenna.



Yesterday's bird count:

Yesterday, when I went to Lake Murray, I did a bird count. I've been doing about one a month there since about May or June. The duck count went down after construction started, but has started to come back up a bit. But, I was surprised at how many coots there were!

I saw a couple of surprises there. I saw some juvenile quail and I saw two new types of birds I haven't seen there before: ruddy ducks and white-crowned sparrows.

Here are the tallys from yesterday:

3	Canada Goose
4	Wood Duck
275	Mallard
12	Ruddy Duck
2	California Quail
8	Pied-billed Grebe
6	Double-crested Cormorant
1	Great Blue Heron
1	Snowy Egret
1	Osprey
1	Cooper's Hawk
392	American Coot
2	Killdeer
1	Spotted Sandpiper
5	Western Gull
2	California Gull
46	Rock Pigeon
90	Mourning Dove
14	Anna's Hummingbird
1	Belted Kingfisher
8	Black Phoebe
7	Western Kingbird
2	American Crow
93	Bushtit
7	Marsh Wren
2	California Gnatcatcher
3	Northern Mockingbird
6	California Towhee
40	Song Sparrow
1	White-crowned Sparrow
7	Red-winged Blackbird
1	Yellow-headed Blackbird
10	Brewer's Blackbird
33	Great-tailed Grackle
17	House Finch
4	Lesser Goldfinch
1	American Goldfinch
4	House Sparrow
2	Nutmeg Mannikin