Baby Season 2017

Duckling season seems to be peaking now. What's been nice is that a lot of the ducklings are surviving a lot longer than they used to. The blue herons have all fledged from their nests and I haven't seen the black-crowned herons all season. The gulls are behaving themselves so far, but I think they may be afraid of being injured by the mama ducks. One of the gulls was so injured, possibly by a mama duck, that it could no longer fly.

I compiled a lot of the photos and videos of the ducklings for this month since the time I last posted.

We have a new set of four goslings at Lake Murray. I think we are not really going to get anymore goslings as it's becoming late in the season.

Miss Butterscotch's ducklings are all grown up and almost ready to fly. Butterscotch is getting her groove back with her male duck friends. Her ducklings are the older ones in the video.

Here are a couple more duckling photos I just took today:

The Two

The single duckling below is being watched closely by the duckling-eating gull. But the mama duck is very experienced and successful, so I don't think she would let him get eaten without a fight.

The Single Duckling

Dumped Ducks:

It's that time of year again where people dump their Easter ducklings to get eaten by coyotes at the lake.  These three nearly died of dehydration until someone threw them into the lake. They're still having a hard time getting adjusted to living at the lake, but at least they're not thirsty anymore. I have a feeling they were kept in a cage or in a home and have no clue what to do.

These two were dropped off yesterday and seem to have a handle on things. Runner Duck wants to rape the female, though, but he hasn't figured out how to get past the big male Pekin.

RIP:

The coyotes have been very active and we've lost several ducks in the last few weeks:

The droopy-winged brown and white female had been missing for a week and a half before I found her body, so she may have been already dead when the coyotes found her. The gray one was doing well and getting grayer, but I didn't see her as well today. But, she may be OK.

The female Chinese swan goose, dropped off almost two years ago, was killed shortly after the droopy-winged duck. Her mate is now spending time trying to stay close to some of the older geese.  I think he's pretty scared. Her egg was still in her nest when I saw the feather pile.

New Baby Ducks at Lake Murray, Today's Picture 5/25/2016

Today's picture is of a new set of ducklings in the same area where Miss Una and her mother kept their ducklings until they went somewhere else. This may be Miss Una's aunt. In case you're wondering, Miss Una's mom and aunt are probably direct descendants of Fish Food Mama who is also mother to Peaches, Butterscotch, Caramel, Pepper, Indy and about 30 other adult ducks at Lake Murray.

Miss Una's mom and aunt are likely two of the 10 ducklings Fish Food Mama successfully raised in 2013. All the females in that brood look very similar to each other and a lot like their mom.

Disappearing and Re-appearing Ducklings

Duck breeding season is both a happy and a sad time for me. Happy because I love seeing all the adorable babies. Sad because many females are killed by male ducks and many ducklings are eaten. Already, I have witnessed gulls grabbing ducklings and eating at least one. They may also be responsible for the disappearance of this one, the last of about ten that hatched about 9 days ago.

The mom didn't seem to care.

Last year's "uneaten duckling," Miss Una, was seen with ten of her own ducklings. She's such a wonderful mama, very conscientious and loving.

Now, here's the weird part. Last Friday, Miss Una had six ducklings, including a lame one that got bit hard by a male and had trouble with his leg. On Saturday, Miss Una had only five ducklings, and I suspected that the lame one probably died from his injuries. However, when I walked around the curve, I found another female, possibly Miss Una's mother, with three ducklings the same age, including one with a hurt foot. She went one way and Miss Una happy went another way.

Today, that other mother was seen with at least 12 ducklings, including the one with the hurt foot. Some looked younger than others.

 One duckling didn't want to go with this other female. When I approached, he ran after the group, but went off on his own and stayed by himself for quite a long time, peeping now and then.

 Later, I saw Miss Una with the one duckling who seemed very happy just to stay with her.

The other female, with at least 11 or 12 ducklings, disappeared at first, but was later seen in the area. She seemed to want to keep her distance from Miss Una and her one duckling. The problem is that this mother takes a lot more risks with her babies than Miss Una and I fear that they may not make it.

For some weird reason, the gulls do not want to fly over this area. There's a kingbird actively attacking many birds, but I don't think they attack gulls. It could just be a fluke and they may decide they want to go over and grab some ducklings eventually.

The gosling season has started and, already, there are two broods. Two more broods will be arriving soon. 

RIP Mr. Pekin and Arthritis Duck:

After looking for them for over a week, I finally found out what happened to Mr. Pekin and the duck with arthritis. They both disappeared at the same time and I was sure that at least one of them was still around because it's rare that two would die suddenly. I found both of their remains today and it looks like they coyotes got both of them the same time. They had been following Miss Angel to this area which is a little further away than they usually go. Miss Angel is OK, however.  Those two were best friends until the last minute. They both join Mr. Squeaky who was killed by coyotes a few months ago.

Coyote Day and Lots of Thrashers

I got to see the coyotes today. They were very far away, but my friends pointed out this family of three hunting. I think they ended up catching a large rabbit. They're pretty small in the pictures, but you may be able to make them out.

In the first picture, there are actually two, but one is very hidden:

There's two in this next photo, too, one in the middle, one off to the upper left:

There are usually only two California thrashers at the lake, but today there were at least a dozen. These two, on the fence, were chasing each other:

This one didn't care about what the other two were doing. Also in the area was a very loud Costa's hummingbird:

It poured down rain a couple days ago. It rained so hard that I don't think even the ducks liked it. Here is Miss Angel and Mr. Squeaky trying to get out of the rain:

Pouring down rain in this photo. The coots are beginning to arrive. The ruddy ducks are already at the lake as are some teal and eared grebes:

The female goose has a companion. Someone dumped that male that's in the background of this next photo. I'm betting they were from the same owner as they've been best friends since day one.

Final Duckling Update and the Temecula Duck Pond

With the end of the season, this will probably be the last duckling update for this year in San Diego and at Lake Murray. 

I didn't see much of the last remaining ducklings in the morning after my last post. Sometimes, I saw them in the afternoon, especially Miss Friendly. Miss Friendly is the one who liked to follow me around. I didn't visit the lake very much in the afternoon, but I did get this picture of Miss Friendly when she was almost a month old.

For weeks, I didn't see any sign of the ducklings until I found this one whom I also think is Miss Friendly at about seven weeks old. She still has fuzz around her legs. She still did her baby talk when I approached.
I think I may have seen the "foster duckling" earlier this week, but it's hard to tell. Project Wildlife releases the ducklings around the same age as those ducklings are now, so it would be hard to tell them apart. I may never know if those other three ducklings made it.

Miss Una is fully grown and is a silly girl. I saw her chasing down flies one time. She's usually by herself.

Sometimes she likes to hang out with the male ducks that Project Wildlife released a couple weeks ago.

Sad news about Skeeter. She has fishing line wrapped around and cutting through her leg. She's been dealing with this for a few weeks. Problem is that the girl is super smart and no one can catch her! The other ducks in the flock are also protecting her, the little buggers. She's unraveled part of it herself, but not all of it. Last I saw, her foot was still "alive" and she's wiggling her toes, but it is swollen up.

In more sad news. someone dumped this female Chinese goose. She is very confused and is wandering around screaming her lungs out and coming up to people. It's clear she wants to go home. I'm hoping she will settle with the other geese, soon, before the coyotes get her.

I went to the Temecula duck pond last week. It's a very nice park and pond. What's neat is that ducks have the right of way on the busy road out there. However, I don't feel the pond is really ideal for ducks with it's raised sidewalks and bumpy rocky haul-out area.

Here is a sample of some of the domestic ducks there that people have dropped off. That runner duck is in charge.

These next two are mallard-domestic hybrids. I'm betting the runner duck is the father of this first one:

The little black-and-white female is in severe need of rescue. Her keel bone sticks way out. I'm not sure if it's a deformity or due to starvation. Some ducks can't really get any nutrition from bread which is the only thing to eat at this pond.

Temecula has a city law outlawing the feeding of ducks, yet I saw at least 6 people who fed them while I was there. All of them fed the ducks bread. This is a photo of their pamphlet discouraging feeding. I don't know if anyone ever reads it. I wish, too, they would also mention something about abandoning domestic pet ducks, too. The ones that seem to be extra hungry are the domestics and they must be fed or rescued.

A few random bird pics from Lake Murray

Just a few random bird pictures today.  I saw no shorebirds at all, nor have I see the scaup, yet.  I know there are a few down here in the San Diego area, just not at this lake.  However, there are more coots there now that I've ever seen before.

I haven't been taking many pictures because it's been really dark and cloudy in the morning, so the light is bad.

Here is a gull doing a courtship call to another gull a few feet away.

This ring-billed gull has some sort of tumor or weird feather growth.  It doesn't seem to be bothering him and when he shakes his head, it wiggles lightly.  He is full of energy, but it looks like he swallowed a golf ball.

Fancy-foot pigeon.  There were actually a few of them there.  I didn't see the racing pigeon, though I heard there was a strange looking pigeon who died there.  However, the racing pigeon really didn't look all that strange, kinda like this one.

Song sparrow with some kind of insect in its mouth:

Little Trouble:

And, the male ruddy ducks are following around the female teal again: