Birdy update

This was all at Lake Murray in San Diego. I plan to get out to bird some other areas, but summer birding in San Diego is a little slow. Here are some birds that I've seen lately:

First, here is what I think is Troublemaker, the duck, who is almost a year old now. He just showed up and ran up to me all of a sudden:

The obligatory gosling photo taken on the 27th:

While there are no ducklings around, I have seen several baby coots. The set of three I saw earlier are all doing fine, but hard to photograph.  Here is a single coot-ling near the other three:

Here are two more coot-lings, one older one and a tiny one in the back. I think the small one has just hatched:

I finally got a photo of the nervous spotted sandpiper! She wouldn't let me get too close, so I didn't get a great picture of her:

Bye Mrs. Spotted Sandpiper:

I don't know if you can see the gnatcatcher in this photo. I got him to come up really close, but my camera lens is acting up, so all I got was this little picture of him. There were two males and a female around there:

I originally thought this was the Baltimore Oriole that I've heard was in the area, but it's a black-headed grosbeak. This is the best picture I have of him.

I found these young ducks that look like recently released Project Wildlife ducks. I wonder if Uno is one of these guys as he would be about their age. They like to eat in the canal and I'm not sure of their flying abilities. So, please keep your dog leashed up there.

I heard there was a small family of ducklings near the fenceline at the end of the walking trail. I thought maybe they were some of the 13 or so I saw a couple weeks ago. But, they might be some of the three that I saw about a month ago on that side.

Killdeer shocked at egret's breakfast and baby updates

The killdeer above, at Lake Murray, was extremely upset after he flew up to check me out yesterday. He didn't notice the great egret when he first arrived, but after a few seconds, I could hear an angry trill. I don't know if he was trilling at me or at the heron who was noshing on a squirrel it had just drowned. Later, the egret had a live squirrel and swallowed it whole before the squirrel was dead. Then, the egret had that look that one gets when they've eaten too much. I hope those two squirrels meant that he was done eating for the day.

Even though those two squirrels died a horrible death and will never experience life again, it doesn't mean that there will be a squirrel shortage. For those who like the squirrels, you can rest assured that plenty of babies are growing up to replace those adults. And, these babies are super quick, too.

There are at least two baby osprey in the osprey nest and they're almost ready to go. I think this is mom waiting for dad to get home with breakfast in the morning:

This California quail is one of at least three quails making a lot of noise. I love to hear the sounds of quail. Most of the quail live in Coyoteland. Even though coyote do eat quail, they also eat a lot of the things that eat quail and quail babies. So, I guess the quail feel it's worth the risk living with the canines:

Pied-billed grebe babies making lots of noise, demanding to be fed:

Even though Peaches and the other mother lost all their babies, Miss Whiteear was seen across the lake with three bitties of her own. She was being harassed by the males, but seemed attentive to her youngins. A heron was over there looking for them, but she was keeping her babies moving and hidden under the cover.

The baby geese are doing well despite the brown grass:

This female domestic duck was dumped about a month ago. She's in poor condition, probably from not being cared for properly. I couldn't get a photo of her until now. She looks a lot like Ducky Ducky who passed away a few months ago:

Mr. Squeaky is still having trouble with his eyes. Otherwise, all the male Pekins are looking very healthy.