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.

Love is in the air

"Killer", George's son

Today, was a warm day at Lake Murray and everyone had love on their mind, even the hawks were flirting.

Killer was seen with Digger who seems to be in love with him. He still doesn't seem too excited about her, but watches over and protects her.



In the ballfields, the M6 "Beautiful Dad" was doing nest scrapes with the mama of his three chicks, Digger, Shy and Secret. Even though she left him and had another chick (named Surprise) with another male, he still wants her for a mate.



They flirted and danced with each other all morning.






In another ballfield, I found three young killdeer, but they wouldn't turn around and look at me, so I couldn't tell who they are. I suspect that they're Shy, the male that likes her, Surprise and his friend, the Tiny look-a-like.

Also seen:

I also saw some long-billed dowitchers, too.



It looks like there's one adult and one juvenile. You can tell the difference between short-billed and long-billed dowitchers by listening to their voice. Here's the juvenile:



I saw two sandpipers, one came right up to me, the other didn't. But, I got a photo of the one that kept running away:




Ducky, aka the "lost" duckling, turned out to be a boy afterall. He is such a happy young duck, now three months old, and loves to hang around a certain sister-brother group:

"Ducky" is the one in front

I also saw a great egret, too:



And, an eared grebe in winter colors: