Final Duckling Report

I'm sorry that I haven't been updating lately as I've been so busy that personal projects have been put aside. I have a ton of photos which haven't been processed yet, including several bird pictures from my trip to a bird festival in Tucson.  In the meantime, I have a few duckling photos from the last of this year's ducklings.

I would have to say that, in terms of survivors, this year has been a great duckling season, except for July. I didn't see a single duckling hatched in late June or July survive, though a few might have in areas that I couldn't reach.

I think in my last post on July 7th, I mentioned this orphaned duckling and the mom who lost all of her ducklings. Well, the duckling finally bonded to this mama. I saw both of them for a few more days before they disappeared. I think the mama took him to a safer place. I am not sure if he made it adulthood, but if he did, he may be the only one to do so.

This mother duck had 13 ducklings to begin with. She hung around the boat docks and was doing really well with her ducklings and managed to keep most of them alive for at least two weeks.

Then, unfortunately, a coyote or dog attacked her and her ducklings, ripped off part of her face and damaged her eye. The eye is still there, but severely damaged. She then began to lose ducklings until, after almost three weeks, none were left.

I saw the mama duck for a couple of weeks after this and she was healing up very well and showed no signs of affliction except she had to compensate for not being able to see on that side. She was even flirting with the males. Unfortunately, I haven't seen her for almost a month now and don't know if she just moved off to a new area of passed away.

The adopted duckling with the older sibling grew up and are really tight best friends. The adopted one is a female and the other one is a male and go everywhere together.

Here is the female one, still friendly.

The other duckling that was raised separate by another female became independent really early and left her mom on her own.

A new mother duck with four ducklings showed up. She looked like one of Miss Una's relatives.

A fifth duckling from her brood was hatched later at someone's house, so the person at that house released him at the lake. However, she released him to wrong mother who attacked him. That mama had an independent duckling and the new duckling bonded to him and was glued to him for a long time. 

Then, he began to follow any adult duck he could find, even the males. I had a feeling that he was part of the mom with four above, so I used his following the other ducks to an advantage. I pretended I was throwing food out to get all the ducks to follow me towards the other mother duck (who was actually coming up from the other end of the beach area). 

The mother duck went up tot he duckling, who wasn't sure about her at first, and he seemed to brace for an attack. However, she began clucking at him and he blended in with the other ducklings. He seemed just fine when I left as seen in this photo. Unfortunately, the next day, I only saw four ducklings in that brood, again, but I think he was still with her.

 Unfortunately, none of those ducklings survived. Here is the mom with her last one, whom, I am almost certain, is the one that was released. At least he lived his short life with a loving wild duck family.

There was one other duckling hatched in early July. He, too, was one of four who were doing very well until they started disappearing. This is his last photo taken in late July when he was almost a month old. Someone told me they saw a mama duck with a young duckling in an area that is difficult to get to, but I never saw him again and I thought I saw his mama alone. I am hoping that she just took him elsewhere.

As of the end of July, there were no young ducklings left, however there were a few older ones around that may have been either ones that were raised in other parts of the lake, or Project Wildlife releases.

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:

Snow Goose at Chollas Lake

Yesterday, I happened to take a walk at Chollas Lake after work and found this little snow goose among the domestic geese there.

I didn't have my camera at that time, so I went today and he was still there.  He is about the size of a large Pekin duck, but smaller than the domestic geese.  Here is a side view:

Front view:

Three-quarters angle:

A close up shows the black "lips" that are characteristic of snow geese:

Snow geese aren't necessarily rare or endangered, but they are rare at Chollas Lake or any area west of the foothills and mountains.  

If you go to see the snow goose, be ware of this large African gander.  His name is Arrowhead and usually he's not a problem.  For some reason, he gets excited when he sees me.  Today, he seemed upset at me, probably because I haven't been coming to Chollas Lake that much in the last few years.  He ignored me yesterday and today, he demanded my attention and acted like he was going to bite me, but didn't.  Then, he ignored me when I tried to call him towards me later.  

If you encounter him, make sure you say his name and pay lots of attention to him.

Here is a domestic goose about the size of the snow goose.  It is mostly blind in that one eye and the other eye is completely missing.  But, he knows how to work it when he wants you to feed him.  Totally adorable.  He looks like a small embden goose.

I threw in a picture of these two ring-billed gulls because they looked so cool:

Birdies!

I haven't been taking many photos at Lake Murray because there really hasn't been too much special going on there or I can't seem to capture anything.  I saw these female or juvenile common yellowthroats bouncing around on the scrub.  There is a beautiful male who holds this territory and I could hear him chipping nearby.

It was cloudy this morning, so the ISO is ramped up on the photos causing a lot of noise.

There was a Bewick's wren who also decided to be a bit friendly and let me take his picture.  Sometimes, they are very friendly and out in the open, sometimes they're not.

And, the eared grebes are back in town!

I didn't see Baby Blue this morning.  Jill, the goose, is still alive and didn't seem to feel like eating.  I will have to try in the afternoon.  Poor girl.