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:

First walk of Fall 2013 at the San Diego Salt Works

Western sandpipers

Today, I went on the very first walk of the fall 2013 at the San Diego Salt Works.  Once a month, from October to March, San Diego Audubon holds a walk in this restricted area. It's a great chance to see some birds that are difficult to see from the areas regularly open to the public. Most of the walks take place on Saturday, but today they did this one on Sunday.  They are also canceled if there's bad weather.  Though today was foggy, it cleared up enough to see some birds.

So, let's get our sandpipers in a row:

So, like I said, it started out dark and cloudy.  Here is a shot of one of the drying ponds.  That is all salt in there, not snow or ice.

I think one of the most common birds inside the salt works area were western sandpipers.  I got lots of photos of them.

There were a log of cormorants hanging out on this thing until just before I took this photo.  You can see a couple of them flying away.

Also on this building were two turnstones, one ruddy and one black.  They seemed like they were best friends.

After a while, we finally saw the willets and godwits:

Willets flying away:

And, where you see willets, you also see marbled godwits:

I saw a few least sandpipers, too:

And, a few red knots:

Western grebe:

Eared grebe, very common there:

And, a surprise horned grebe.  Note the different shaped head and bill and brighter side and neck/head area:

A few greater yellowlegs were around, too:

There were a good number of long-billed curlews there, too.  Here's one with a couple of dunlin:

Here's a couple of western sandpipers with a couple of dunlins.  Lots of dunlins, too.

The ever-present Belding's savanna sparrow:

Royal tern:

Black-necked stilts:

Stilts with a few avocets:

There was also a surprise stilt family there with chicks that are still fuzzy and have gray necks.  Here is dad with the two chicks:

Here are the two babies:

And, a couple more surprises.  This is a photo of the first cattle egret ever seen at the salt works.  Cattle egrets, though common in many areas in the south, are not common in the San Diego area.

And, there was a short-eared owl, though I couldn't get a photo of him flying around.

And, then the sun came out and made the salt ponds look like glass:

Ducky day

Tiny and a mallard or rouen duck

The only killdeer I saw today was Tiny and he was hanging around the coots and the ducks. He looks totally an adult now. Very different from when he first learned how to fly. No killdeer were at the ballfields. I did hear some of the other ones, but I didn't see them.

Tiny

I saw another limping coot, the third victim of whatever is hurting them or perhaps the first one who was injured and began hurting again. The water level has gone down and they're not hanging around that one tree anymore. But, they are still feeding close to it and under another tree.

The "lost" duckling (to be named "Ducky") was wandering far from the water's edge close to the parking lot. He was walking up to people standing around near there. But, I got him away by going to a picnic table. He ran right up to me each time I put my bags down on a table. So, he has learned to associate the picnic tables with food. That might be a problem in the future if he gets aggressive when people won't feed him. Here's a video of him and a friend coming up to me at the table:

I saw a bunch of horned grebes at Lake Murray, too. It's funny to think that they may have "followed" me back to San Diego from the Salton Sea.

Horned grebes and a coot

Chocolate 1 is beginning to show signs of courtship and aggression. Most of the other ducks back down from him:



And, of course, the little sandpiper was around: