Duck update for November 2013

I haven't done an update for a very long time, so here's a few photos I've taken at Lake Murray over the last week.

First of all, Baby Blue has me worried.  His crop just keeps getting bigger.  However, he doesn't act overly hungry or thirsty, so I'm hoping he's just being a pig and eating too much early in the morning.  However, I did not see him yesterday and that has me worried as well.

Yesterday, I saw the "blonde duck" who now looks like he's half Saxony and half Buff, for sure, just like the females on the other side of the lake.  He's also got a a little crest.

I also found these two.  They were the two skinny ducks dumped off a few months ago.  They have filled out now and are a big bigger and fatter.  The female Cayuga has a problem with her nictitating membrane and may be having vision problems.

It's been cold in the early morning and many the ducks have their heads tucked it to warm the air going into their body:

Pepper also had his foot up in his feathers.   By doing that, he can save 50% of his heat loss.

This poor duck can't do that because he is missing his foot, but he still thinks it's there and tries to put it in his feathers.  He's the same duck that had fishing line totally killing his foot a couple months ago.  I think he was rescued and had surgery.  He seems to be dealing with his missing foot well and even stands on his leg stump:

Here is another mallard-gadwall pair, but it's not Gaddy:

Here is the beautiful male:

This is Gaddy and his mallard girlfriend.  Gaddy is going to be three years old next year.

There were also buffleheads.  This male had two females hanging around him, but the females disappeared:

A male canvasback was seen with his two girlfriends whom I didn't get a good photo of because of the distance:

The horned grebe was still there and giving everyone a good look close to the lakeshore.  No sign of the hooded merganser:

The vultures were keeping the lake clean by eating a dead coot.  They were mostly polite to each other and the one on the right seemed a little more dominant even though he looked younger:

This red-shouldered hawk was near the golf course and was definitely looking and waiting for something near the canals.  I'm betting there's good mice and rabbit hunting up there:

All ducks get into the water!

All ducks get into the water! (because there's a hawk nearby!)

And, they did:

It was a juvenile red-shouldered hawk being harassed by the gulls:

And, all the ducks stayed in deep water while it was there on that tree branch.  Fish Food Mama made alarm calls.

Later, the hawk went out to look for Skippy and Zippy, but I think they were well hidden.

I saw this juvenile killdeer in George's territory, but I don't think it's the same one I used to see there before because it has no spots on it like the last one and I think it's a male.  He does look a lot like a fat George or Junior, though.

Nom, nom, nom, nom, yum bugs!

A word about Pekins at the lake:

Each time I visit the lake, it seems like I see more and more Pekin ducks, lately.  Before June, there were only four Pekin ducks at the lake, now there is 11 and I wonder when all the Pekin duck dumping is going to stop.  I hate it when they die because they all don't live very long out there in the wild and they're so sweet and loveable, you can't help getting attached to them.

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.

Lake update 6/12/2012

Smudge

I went to the lake Saturday and I didn't bring my camera.  I saw that Junior's nest has hatched and Junior and his family has completely disappeared.  Today, I saw only one of the juveniles from Killer's territory over there.  Later, I could hear Junior screaming as if he was defending his chicks, but I looked all over and couldn't find the family.

Meanwhile, Smudge and her sister are still in the ballfields.  They seem totally relaxed.  Their dad, Pollux, has been trying hard to get them to fly around with him, but they just ignore him.  Smudge's sister wasn't being very co-operative with me photographing her.

Smudge

The two oldest ducklings at the lake still don't have their wing feathers:

This is pretty odd for ducklings over two months old.

I couldn't find Neo today to compare, but when I last saw him, he was beginning to grow out his primaries and he's at least two weeks behind these girls in age.  I sure hope that they grow soon as the two red-tailed hawks are almost ready to fledge:

The mom of five ducklings have moved to a new area and are feeding on a big algae bloom.  Mom was a little upset about the cormorant activity there:

I saw this mom with three ducklings on Saturday and all three are still alive today.  I think this is Neo's older sister from last year that looks exactly like her mom.  She was stolen and raised away from her mom by another female:

The were eating algae, too:

I saw three baby coots in the area where I saw two last year in which one got eaten by one of the herons.  One of the babies was afraid of me and went and hid.  All three babies appeared to have hatched at about the same time:

This juvenile black-crowned night heron was watching them.  They were moving closer and closer to him, seemingly not to notice.  He sure looked like he was excited about having a baby coot for lunch today:

But, luckily, mom and dad coot saw him and gave him a good wallop.  All three chicks were saved.

The baby great blue herons were in their nest, if you can see them in this photo:

They were very concerned about this great egret nearby in a tree.  I have no idea where their parents are hunting nowadays.

Pepper is looking beautiful, but still has a broken wing (on the other side), though it looks partially healed.

Spoonface (Bossy) and his ring are still around.  At least things haven't gotten worse for him.  He is one year old now.

Near Spoonface was a family of coots, also:

Quacker, the flying cayuga seems to have been missing for at least three to four weeks now.  People are concerned about her.  Quacker flies exceptionally well, about as good as the wild mallards.  Her boyfriend was possibly seen, once, in the area, but not lately.  It is possible that Quacker has moved on to another location, or, perhaps, she went to sit on a nest somewhere, especially since her boyfriend has also not been seen.  She has been at the lake for over two years now.

Counting Day

First birds I saw were these two stilts, a male and a female.  I think the gull was confused about them.

Male stilt

 I saw a gadwall and went over to see if it was Gaddy, the missing gadwall (and it was!) and they flew off to the killdeer breeding area.  Needless to say the juvenile killdeer over there were a bit scared of them.

I also saw the two hawklets in their nest.  You can see the older one sticking his head out, here.  The younger one has an all-white fuzzy head.

Doodle's Placekeeper was seen with Doodle's Bully and Baby Doodle.

"Excuse me while I molt into something more comfortable"

Mom of five was seen, but led her ducklings pass some gulls eating a fish.  One gull started stalking her, so she was super vigilant.  The gull gave up when he saw the ducklings go into the reeds and, possibly, because they were pretty big.  Her ducklings don't seem to worry about gulls at all.

Here she is, later, with her five.  Though it's too early to tell for sure, I think she's got three girls and two boys:

 Indy, whom I think is a boy:

Sweetie, whom I think might be a girl, but I am not sure:

Neo was also seen, doing well.

Two new juvenile killdeer were seen today, one still has some fuzz on him and peeps like a chick.  The other seems older.  I think this might either be Killer's new chicks from this year, but I'm not sure.

In this photo, fuzz can still be seen around the head and neck.

Notice the "chopped" look of the feathers at the base of the tail:

This one appears to be more mature, but still looks juvenile.

Squeak's chicks are still alive (at least two of them) and almost all their down is gone, except for some on Smudge.  They are still smaller than an adult killdeer, but not by much.  At first, Pollux was guarding them, but left them alone, later. I think he's trying to encourage them to start flying and when he leaves, he calls for them, but they don't follow.