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:

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.

Cooper's hawk and crow

I was hoping to get some interactions between the male Cooper's hawk above and the crows that it was harassing and attacking.  I often seen Cooper's hawk attacking crows, but I haven't seen any crows get killed, tough I know Cooper's hawks do kill and eat crows.  The crows didn't seem very terrified of the hawk which was a bit smaller than they were, being a male Cooper's and not a female.

This particular crow got injured by the hawk and recovered.  When she was hurt, another crow came and comforted her and gave her food.  But, when she was better and after she was flying OK, they all moved off.  I wasn't fast enough to get any photos of the attacks.

The hawk stayed in the three and looked around, but I don't think he saw two killdeer in the grass, frozen and silent.  There was a male and a female killdeer there.  I didn't even see them until after the crows flew off.  But, the hawk wasn't interested in them, he wanted the crows and flew over to where they were at.

Attacking crows must be a dangerous thing to do for a small hawk.  I'm really surprised the crows didn't gang up on the hawk.

Orange-crowned warbler and one less Pekin

I think this is an orange-crowned warbler, one of the birds I know is always at Lake Murray, but I rarely see.  He was hopping around on this fence.  Didn't seem shy at all.

Big Mama Cooper's Hawk didn't seem to mind me taking her picture, either, even with the flash going.  Later, I found a half-eaten dead coot in the area.  It's unusual for her not to eat her entire kill, but she may have been disturbed by people walking by.

This is Bumblefoot and her mate.  She's very vocal:

And, she loves her mate.  Here she is saying "I love you" by doing head bobbing at him. She was actually walking better today.

Big Daddy thought I had some food, but I didn't:

Today, the black Swedish duck known as Oreo was by himself.  His friend, Aflac, was found dead and mostly eaten and it looks like raccoons got him and dragged him to the reeds near where they sleep.  Oreo was acting fairly normally, but when his flock containing Cinnamon and her boyfriends moved to another area, he stayed behind.  He's perhaps hoping his friend will "wake up" or show up again and, then, they will go together.

Here's a photo taken a couple of weeks after they arrived in late March/early April, 2011:

Cinnamon and her boyfriends (including Stubby) are OK, but I worry that the predator will be back for the rest of the ducks.

Gender confused duck

We have one of our returning migrants visiting the lake right now.  He/she was here last year at about the exact same time.  Definitely a hybrid.  I say "he/she" because I can't tell what gender this one is!  It has an orange bill and a female quack, but also has some drake coloring and drake curls on the tail.  He/she also does the laughing quack that only females can do.  When males approach him/her, he/she does the female rejection/acceptance vocalizations.  

Here she is before sunrise:

And, just after daylight.  Notice the curls on the tail feathers.

I saw Pepper today, he likes to move and stretch his hurt wing constantly.  I was hoping I could get a photo of him flapping his wings, as he likes to do all the time, but he wouldn't do it for me.  His primaries on the hurt wing have been stripped, probably due to his constant grooming and scratching.  But, other than that, he seems very happy and energetic.

Here's a photo of the "boy band".  They are the four oldest domestic ducks at the lake:  Bigboi, Donald, Buffy2 (Latte) and the crested runner.  Buffy and the crested duck are two years old, Donald and Bigboi are at least  four years old.

I didn't see Mama and her ducklings, or any other ducklings today during the hour I was there.  It was probably just as well because there were so many predators out this morning.  I saw four hawks, a great blue heron, a great egret, black-crowned night herons, and about twenty gulls, all seeming to be out looking for Mama and her brood.  I thought I heard the babies deep in a reed bed near the boat docks and fishing pier.  Her ducklings don't sound like other ducklings, so they're hard to confuse with anything else.  But, at the same time, there was a baby pied billed grebe peeping away, so, I wasn't sure if that was them or the grebe I heard.  It was reported to me that she still had 7 ducklings as of yesterday afternoon.

Here's a photo of one of the Cooper's hawks in the area.  This one was trying to catch squirrels.  It's Big Mama Cooper's daughter from this year:

I also saw the mom that had 8 ducklings earlier in the year.  I think three of her ducklings survived, including a large male that looks like his daddy.  It turns out that the mom of that brood was the mate of Snowy, the snowy mallard.  There is another female that looks like her who had six ducklings a couple weeks ago, last seen with four a few days later.

I also saw this one young female killdeer, all alone.  I haven't seen her brother in at least a week or week and a half.  I hope nothing happened to him.  I'm not 100% sure if this is Junior's chick.

Sunrise with ducklings

One duckling was swimming with his eyes closed

I got to the lake right after sunrise, but I didn't have time to take many photos.  The moon was beginning to set:

Yellow-cheeks still has her two ducklings, but two big herons were in her area, so she was being very cautious.  Since there weren't that many people fishing there today, she took her time going to her usual spots.  The gulls spotted them, but didn't attack.

I took some photos of this duck, hoping it was Neo, but I think it's Indy.  (Actually, I think Neo was right at my feet as I took this photo, but walked away).  Fish Food Mama's ducklings are three months old today.  I saw Indy's two sisters with another youngster and I think his two brothers and mom was nearby.  He still has a squeaky voice, but you can hear the drake rasp making its way to the surface.

Though I didn't have time to take a picture, I think I also saw Bossy duck, but didn't see his ring, but it might be under his feathers.  He had a little crease in the feathers near where I last saw the ring.  He's still a cutie-pie.  And, I think I saw Ducky, too, and the eight mallard duckling drop-offs and the four Pekin dumpees.  I also saw the two young killdeers, one still has his fuzzy down chest.

This Forster's tern doesn't have to pay attention to no fishing signs.  Actually, I think it's a female waiting for her mate.  She looks like she's molting.

The Cooper's hawk is molting, too.  Here's one taking his morning bath.  When he flew off, a green heron nearby had a huge fit.  I don't even think the heron knew he was there and screamed for over a minute or two.

Juvenile Cooper's Hawks

Today was not a great picture day.  Many of the animals and birds were either hiding, too far away, or obscured.  I did get a couple of photos of Big Mama's two fledglings.

Here is the little male, he's very curious and checks out everything around him:

His big sister is a little shy and when she saw me nearby, she began screaming for mama.  But, before that, she tried to catch a squirrel.  I don't know what it is about juvenile female Cooper's hawks and squirrels, but they all seem to want to catch them, unlike the juvenile males:

I hope I never see one of these guys catch a killdeer there, that would devastate me.  But, I know it's a matter of time that I will see it.

Here is a great egret nearby.  It's a little early in the year for them to be back here:

And, finally, Mama's Little Weakling.  She's looking more and more like her mother.

The four little ducklings, seen yesterday, are all doing well.  Mama left them alone for a few minutes, but one duckling began to scream for her and she came back. She then led them to a place where they could eat.  When she flew over them, one duckling shot out from the group like lightning, but came back when he saw it was his mom and not a gull.   I was worried because a juvenile red-tailed hawk was in the area and I thought he caught the mom.  But, all is good as far as I know.

And, Sweetie, Indy, and the other two brothers were all seen doing well, too.  I don't know what happened to the other female or Fish Food Mama, today.  Sweetie is starting to get her big girl duck voice.   Neo was not seen at all today.

Pollux was in the ballfield with his dad, no sign of Miracle and her little chick.

New hawks move in

So far, no Big Mama Cooper's hawk, but the red-shouldered hawks are fine and were using her hunting area.  So, I think Big Mama might truly be dead because she would never had let any of those hawks get close to her nesting area and prime feeding spots.

I also saw this juvenile Cooper's hawk hunting squirrels in her territory, possibly one of Big Mama's offspring.  She didn't seem very good at it and the squirrels didn't even seem to avoid her.

I don't know if the squirrels don't see her, didn't care, or just were confident that they could get away because they just went along feeding like nothing was happening.  The hawk was rather clumsy at hunting them, though.

A long-billed dowitcher came to visit:

Hurt-wing was quacking for a boyfriend nearby.

Pepper was here:

He and his brother were working together to fight off strange males.  

And, finally, Killer:

And, Dee taking a time out from nesting to fill up on bugs.

Junior and his mate were seen nearby doing courtship dances and vocalizations.