Update on Tom the Muscovy and some killdeers

M6 mom and dad with ducks

I decided to make an extra trip to the lake today because of the cat I saw and wanted to make sure that it didn't put a damper into the birds' routines. Well, all the birds, including the little sandpiper, were doing fine.

It was cold, dark, windy and rainy when I went and I couldn't get a whole lot of non-blurry photos.

First, the killdeer:

The in-laws were still there, but everyone is getting along remarkably well. Killer does trill and display whenever he gets close to Digger's dad or Digger's dad gets too close to Digger. Then, Killer did a kind of a head-bob towards the M6 dad that seemed to indicate a truce.

M6 dad and Killer displaying.

The mom goes off on her own a lot at does her own thing before she realizes that no one else is following her:

M6 mom

"Look, I caught a worm!" (Sorry for the blurr)

He grabbed the worm and ran

Digger (right), Killer (middle) and Digger's dad (left)

Later, the dad, Killer and Digger all went fishing. Digger decided to poke and chase Killer around, probably for fun.

I also found a killdeer feather, a brown one that is probably from the top part of the tail or body. I didn't see anymore, so I think it might be a molt feather or one from fighting and not from a predator attack. As far as I know, there are no missing killdeer.

Ducks!

Ducky is doing fine, sorry for the blurr, he was moving around a lot.



I saw two other ducks, a male and a female, that are Ducky's age wandering around. I wonder if his siblings survived afterall. I definitely only saw one duckling in that area, but someone reported that there were three in the beginning. Perhaps the other two belonged to another mom and she took them somewhere else. I remember a "dispute" between Ducky's mom and another female over Ducky when he was really young. The other female seemed to be claiming Ducky as her own, but later left the area and not seen again.

They could have, also, flown in from somewhere else. All in all, we have three ducks that are late-hatchers here.

Tom the muscovy duck, the last of the muscovies at Lake Murray, is still plugging along, though his eyesight is getting worse. He looks like he's lost weight, but his feathers are looking really, really good! I've never seen him with so much green. He actually looks very fit and healthy otherwise. However, he is sleeping a lot and not moving around so much. It could be because of the weather.

The wind blew his feathers up

Here he is getting fed by hand.



Reminder about dogs at Lake Murray:

I just wanted to remind people that dogs are not allowed off-leash at Lake Murray at all. And, no dog is allowed near the lake shore under any circumstance (50 feet from water). A lot of ground nesting birds nest near the water and their babies often can't get away from a dog. A dog could eat a duckling, quail, or a killdeer chick before their parents have a chance to respond and defend them. Many birds here in San Diego nest all year round, not just in the summer. So, please be conscious of this before you take your dog, off-leash, to run around at the water's edge.

Also, rattlesnakes are very common around the lake and not all the other dogs being walked around the lake like other dogs.

Ducky is back and another male challenges George's son

Killer (the killdeer) and Digger

Today, Killer had another challenger for Digger, his mate. Digger seemed curious, but mostly stood allied with Killer.

I looked though my killdeer records and I don't think I've seen this male before.



The two of them, Killer and Digger, chase him off.



Standing united.





The sandpiper doesn't care, just keeps feeding.



The challenger didn't seem very serious about fighting, but kept pestering the female nontheless.

Ducks

Ducky is back! Here he is getting food this morning. Still working on his molt and getting his green head. He gets pecked a lot by the other males:



Here is his friend who is further along in his molt and has gotten his drake feather. I think he's about 18 weeks old now:



I like this runner-Cayuga mix, but she's afraid of me:



This is Bill's favorite, calls him the baby duck. I think he might be a bantam white mallard drake:




I think I saw Sir Francis Drake, the mallard who had his foot bound by fishing line for over a year. I didn't take a photo of him, but it appears that his foot may have totally healed up back to normal. I'm not sure if he's the one I saw or not, but he has the same bill marking as Sir Francis.

I saw the pretty gadwalls, here's the male (in the back) with some mallard ducks:



These two gadwalls got jumped on by the juvenile seagull who was probably just playing with them:



After he jumped on them, they stood up and flapped their wings:



Also seen:

(Warning, photo may bother some people)
This vulture was eating the coot that died a couple of weeks ago. He washed up in the area a few days ago and the vultures carried him away to this spot. The seagull got to eat, too.



The spotted sandpiper on the southern side of the parking lot (near Alvarado bay) is getting his spots back:



Here's the other sandpiper on the northern side of the parking lot (near Padre bay):



And, here's a juvenile male red-winged blackbird:



It's getting harder to identify birds lately as they are either in their juvenile or winter plumage!

Duck update for Lake Murray

Molting ducks, some adults, some older ducklings

The ducks are molting! Now, I can't tell the difference between the ducklings and the adults as they are all molting and most of them are the same colors! There are a few, mostly the younger ducklings, that you can still tell that they're ducklings, but most of the older ones you can't tell how old they are. All the surviving ducklings that I know of at Lake Murray are 8 to 16 weeks old (there are a few broods that would be about five to six weeks old, but I haven't seen them lately. Even they would blend in well.). The 8 week olds and younger are still easy to pick out, but anything older, especially flying ducklings, are more difficult. Adult males are entering the "Eclipse" phase where they look like juveniles or large females. This is good, it allows the ducklings born over the summer to stay out of the mating frenzy and keeps them from being mated too soon.

Update on the injured duckling/duck



I went over and tried to find the injured duck that I saw last Sunday. I did find one duck with an unusable leg on the shore. He was standing on one leg, preening himself and seemed OK except for that one leg. He let me get really close before he stumbled into the water and swam away. He looked like an older duckling, but may actually be an older adult duck named "Sir Francis Drake" entering his Eclipse phase. Sir Francis also had a hurt left leg and recently was caught and a wire removed from his leg. He seemed pretty OK otherwise.

Perhaps the injured duckling is actually a molting adult male. However, the duck I saw on Sunday was really bad off and couldn't stand on either leg. Plus, he couldn't fly. Sir Francis Drake can fly, but he may not have been able to do that during the molt. But, I think Sir Francis has a bright yellow bill and this duck has a green bill with a little blue and orange showing up. As far as I know, only young ducks have a green bill. I will have to do some research on this.

"Sir Francis Drake" before the wire was removed from his leg

In any case, I didn't see any other injured ducks today.

Killdeer update:

George and Martha were not seen or heard today. There were 4 pairs of killdeer in one ballfield plus Mary. I think there might have been a few more in the other ballfields, but it may have been the killdeer shifting around because the starlings were flying from field to field being bullies. I thought I heard the M6 dad or his chick calling. At 4.5 weeks old, the chicks should have a voice almost as loud as an adult.

Also seen:

A turkey vulture, probably looking for dead animals/ducks or live chicks.



And, a mottled black and white duck. I think this duck was part Indian runner. Maybe the other part was related to the Muscovy duck in the area.