George's grandchildren

I think I may have discovered more of killdeer George's grandchildren at Lake Murray. Here's a female that is hanging around with Junior. She's either his daughter (see the family resemblance) or she's looking for a mate. A similar-looking male was also seen in the area, before. Junior doesn't show any sign of chasing the male off or flirting with the female. Both look to be about 6 to 8 weeks old.

Georgina

Also, here's one of Killer's offspring. He was chased around by a Cooper's hawk this morning for a long time, but luckily he was a little too fast for the hawk. I was so scared for him.

Killer Jr. (almost became hawk food today)

Kingbirds came and chased off the hawk. When the hawk came back, chasing a dove, the kingbirds went after him again. I think it's Big Mama's mate who usually prefers squirrels over birds. I'm guessing their chicks are getting ready to fledge as the parents seem to be hunting more desperately than before. Bad time for me to watch the birds because the hawks go after all the birds I like.

Cassin's kingbird

Here's some pictures of ducklings:

Boat dock ducklings, now 10 weeks old:

Pepper

Peaches and the girls

More wood ducklings:


Ducky's ducklings:




Bossy ducklings:



A lone, weak duckling and mama:



And, some gadwall-mallard hybrid ducklings:

Killdeer George's 2010 family review

Here is a Youtube slideshow that shows George's family in progress for 2010:

Lake Murray flooded

George and Tiny's feeding area was completely flooded

Lake Murray's water level was so high from the recent rains that it overflowed into the parking lot. But, today, it was just at the edge. It also covered some of the walkways. Picnic tables and trash cans were also several feet offshore.

This is what usually is a little peninsula jutting out where people can fish from

The reeds the ducks like to hide in

These picnic tables are usually several feet away from the water's edge

The ducks were loving it, but Tom was being grumpy with me. All he could think about was preening and pulling out his under-feathers. I called and called him and he didn't come to me. When I walked up to him, he jerked away and hissed at me. But, I managed to get him to come up and get some food from someone else.


A lot of people were feeding a lot of food to the ducks today. They were really hungry. I hope they didn't get sick from gorging on all the food. The parking lot will be closed tomorrow, but I'm sure someone will be there to feed them.

Many of the ducks were missing or not seen. But, I did see Flycatcher:



And, Chocolate 2, now named Cinnamon. She was calling loudly for the boys and several of them answered her:



I found this crested duck courting Cinnamon. I think he's one of this year's ducklings, possible one of the "Chocolate" ducks:



The hurt duck was there and he seemed to be doing slightly better, but not much:



This heron was enjoying his time on one of the picnic tables separated from the shore:



I ate an apple and tried to throw it into a trash can a few feet away from the water's edge and missed. This coot grabbed the apple core and swam away with it. I was worried, a little, because apples seeds are deadly to ducks, but I think it was OK. The core sank under water and it's unlikely that they ducks will eat the seeds anyway:

Come back with my apple!

The ospreys could be heard calling back and forth:



And, I got a photo of this Say's phoebe at the ballfield:



And, when I was leaving, I saw this little kestrel. Hopefully, it was after mice and not the black phoebe nearby:



No killdeers today. I did hear a few, but saw none anywhere.

Merry Christmas!

George defends his territory

Today, there were lots of things happening in killdeer-land at Lake Murray and I will be posting the events in two parts. I will begin with what was going on in George's territory.

Tiny was seen early in the morning in the feeding area.

Caught Tiny sleeping this morning

However, he was gone a few hours later and two males were spotted feeding along the shoreline. One male was very, very hungry and eagerly tried to eat every bug he could catch. They were also both very easy to approach and watched me with curiosity. They looked like "Surprise" (the M6 chick's half brother who is 3 1/2 months old) and his older friend (The "Tiny look-a-like," a male about 4 1/2 months old) who has been like a brother to him since he arrived at the ballfields.

The "Tiny look-a-like" and Surprise (behind)

Well, to my surprise, George, who sees and knows everything that goes on his territory, showed up and was not happy about these two males in his feeding area eating all his food, so he was very aggressive towards them.

George chases the older juvenile

Surprise was actually scared of George and even hid behind a rock to keep from being attacked. One time, he was chased away, but did not want to leave his companion behind, so he came back.

Surprise (right) looks surprised (note the feathers on his head standing up) at George's aggression

George eying Surprise

George chasing Surprise away, but he came back

I think these young males were there to see Firecracker, who was probably sent away by George. That would explain the alarm calls they made when I went towards the area that she probably went. I didn't see her, but she might have been there a short time before. I think she may have been at the ballfields a week or two ago. They did not challenge George, but would not leave the area, which made him upset.

Later, George went and took a long drink of water. It was warm out today. I hope he's OK, but he does tend to drink a lot more than other killdeer most of the time.

Also seen:

Ducky was there with her duck friends:

Ducky was sleeping

I also got a photo of a white-crowned sparrow:



A juvenile herring gull--first I've ever seen:


And, a juvenile snowy egret:




Sad news:

In sad news, another dead coot was found in Alvarado bay. It was actually floating on top of the water with his head underwater. A friend of the coot came by to check on him and got scared. All the other coots stayed away, too. Eventually, he sank under water a few hours later.

I think when they get tired or weak, they have a hard time holding their head up and drown when they are too tired to keep it out of the water. It's possible it was sick and died in its sleep last night. Too bad.

Part 2: Shy (an M6 chick) is popular with the boys.

Lots of killdeer today

Killer (the killdeer) looking great!

Today, I saw lots of killdeer, including Secret, Shy and the M6 dad. I also saw some new killdeer whom I don't think I've ever met before.


I actually saw the M6 dad and another, young, male getting along and realized, later, that the other male was his son whom he hadn't lived around since the chick was 10 days old. Yet, he was not aggressive. I wonder if, after all these months, he still remembers that Secret is his chick.

Almost looks like a marriage ceremony is taking place. That's the M6 dad on the log with Secret and his new female friend.

Secret has found a girl who seems to be about two to three months old, the age Junior's chicks would be if they have survived. I can't be certain as I couldn't observe Junior and his family, but I suspect they were raised nearby and it's a good possibility that the female is George's grand-daughter.

Secret begins to chase his female friend, who runs away, but then comes back to him

I also found this different-looking male, very beautiful:



The "puffed-up" banded male is back, too! He's another "oldie" in the area.



A hawk scared the killdeer in this area and they scattered. Then, I saw this young killdeer scared and calling for companionship. It was OK, though. I think it might be "Surprise" or even a sibling to the female that Secret is chasing around.



Shy was in another ballfied, sans her dad (who was attending to her brother):



In George's feeding area, Killer and Shy's sister, Digger, are still together and seem to be very happy, though Killer is constantly clucking at her.



This phoebe wasn't happy though. It kept swooping over the killdeer's head, probably slapping them with his wings, to get them to leave. They just ignored him and he went to hunt somewhere else.



The ducks looked good. Here's a photo of some of them dabbling in the mud for some birdseed. I think that's the "fish food" ducklings' mama:



And, this may be one of Flycatcher's two or three sisters:

Osprey Day

George races the egret

Today is a tropical feeling day and we have some tropical moisture moving over us. It rained early in the morning and it looks like it will rain in the afternoon, too.

The killdeer are all moving around all over the place and I think I even saw some new "faces" around the lake. Killer still seems to be hopelessly in love with Shy and follows her around. Lately, he seems to be sticking up to her dad, but still hesitant to fight him.

Tiny, I think

Killer

Martha has been around with Firecracker and I think I even saw Digger, Shy's sister, too. She looks a lot like George. When I arrived, she came to greet me, first.

Martha, Firecracker and, I think, Digger

Osprey:

The lake osprey was very active today and I got several shots of him. He was hanging around where the juvenile male Cooper's hawk used to hang around (I haven't seen the hawks, lately, though) and where the killdeer chicks hatched.






Also seen:

This may possibly be the baby duck that I used to see when I sat on a bench and watched him play around me until he disappeared just over a month ago. I think he's about seven weeks old now:



Also, this handsome mallard couple:



And, a Western kingbird. These birds look similar to a Say's phoebe except it's slightly larger, a more elongated shape, different bill shape, and the gray "hood" is more rounded at the bottom rather than an inverted triangle.


A juvenile red-tailed hawk was also seen, but didn't get a photo. He was being shadowed by the osprey. I think he wanted squirrels.