A day made for ducks

While this morning was really nice, the afternoon turned very rainy and not that many people came to the lake, so all the duckies were very hungry and came running up to me. But, I forgot to bring food.

Tom was there as was Curly. Curly got mad that I was paying so much attention to Tom that he jumped on Tom's back and nipped his tail. It was funny to see, but Curly is tough! Later, Tom went and rooted around in the grass before going back out to the parking lot. Lately, he's been laying around in the parking lot much of the time. I don't know why.



Here's a new duck, she's a gadwall-mallard hybrid:



This is her with a male that loves her a lot:



Lots of wood ducks today:

Got anything good to eat?

I think Ducky's girlfriend is being too flirty with other males. Poor Ducky was chased away by the older males who challenged each other and were encouraged by head bobbing from the female:



Big Daddy was there:



As was his daughter and her mate:



Big Daddy2 and the chocolate ducks:



And, finally, Cinnamon and one of her boyfriends:

Lake Update

I thought I would check on the birds at the lake and everything is still the same, it seems. Tiny is still staying with the new female and his mom, Martha. Martha is getting along with the new female pretty well, except she does get a little mean sometimes.

Tiny plays games with his new mate

Mom is still not sure if she approves

Tom, the muscovy, tells vultures: "I'm not dead!"

Tom, the big, black, muscovy duck at Lake Murray was having his daily nap across the bay from where he usually visits me early in the morning. Some vultures started to surround him, but he woke up and probably began a hiss-fest at them. I could see him moving around, but couldn't hear him. The vultures then left him alone. Sometimes, vultures will attack animals who are not yet dead, but would be too weak to defend themselves. Tom needs to get more lively. He's old, can't see well and, I think, might have some kind of arthritis, but he's not dead. It's possible that he didn't react fast enough because he couldn't see them very well. But, if he was attacked, he would be more than capable of fighting them off.

"I'm not dead!" Tom says (that's his third eyelid over his eye, shielding from the sun)

I wonder if that happens to Tom a lot nowadays.

Ducky, the "lost" duckling is still around and still with all his duckling-hood friends.



I also saw a couple of red-head ducks, a male and a female:

Male (with coot)

Female

The egret was still very much in concentration. I never saw him catch anything, though, but he sure was patient:



A couple of ducks have not be seen in a while since Bill stopped feeding them. Chocolate, the large mallard-rouen-runner mix is missing, but may be with her buddies somewhere else on the lake. When she's on the water, it's a little harder distinguishing her from the other ducks at a distance. She can't fly very much, but she made it all the way to six months old, so she's probably fine. Also, Snowball, the white mallard, hasn't been seen in a week. Either he was captured or flew off with his buddies. If he flew off, he may be back.

Lots of seagulls today! There are people bringing large rolls of bread and feeding them to all the birds. I heard someone complain that there were too many seagulls, but I never saw them until now. They may be there because of all the bread still being fed to them. Also, some of them looked like ring-billed gulls who visit here in the winter.



And, finally, here's a little video I took of all the geese and ducks:

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.