Bad news about Neo

I have bad news about Neo.  I've been seeing this duck with a hurt wing for almost a week now, but never got a good look at him until today.

Someone was feeding him with Indy and another small duck that might be Indy's brother along with Sweetie. I recognized him as Neo immediately, but wasn't a 100% sure and I really didn't want it to be him.  So, I took a photo to compare with Neo's other photos.  Sadly, yes, this does look like Neo in all aspects.  He will be one year old in a few weeks.

There are several ducks with hurt or broken wings at Lake Murray that have been flightless for over a year or more, so Neo still has a chance to live on.  I suspect he got hurt fighting with his mother's mate.  His mother may be on a nest nearby because it is that time of year when she nests.  Or, maybe Bitey got a hold of him.  But, I doubt it because the mallards like to boss Bitey around.  It doesn't look as bad as Pepper's or Hurt Wing's wings, but I haven't been able to see under it.  I'm hoping it's just sprained.

I've noticed that drakes with broken or hurt wings are rarely successful at breeding.

You might remember Neo from my Youtube Slideshow:  Neo, the Duckling that Lived!

Bitey's close call with bad humans:

Speaking of Bitey, I visited him today and gave him some food.  He also got another cup of food from someone else, so he got lots to eat this afternoon.  However, a lady told me that just before I arrived, several young men were surrounding him, feeding him something, and making comments that might indicate that they fed him poison or were going to hurt him.  They were also filming him with their cell phones.  When the lady came up, they were very rude to her, but they left.

I watched over Bitey for an hour and a half and I didn't see him acting unusual (for Bitey at least).  It's very possible that they were planning on doing something to Bitey, but the lady interrupted them.  I really need to get him a home, soon, before someone hurts or kills him.

Autumn Day in San Diego

It's a fall day in San Diego, that usually means Santa Ana winds.  But, today, it was partly cloudy and cool.  Big Daddy and the other ducks were busy doing their duck things:

I bet the female redhead that was here all summer is happy there's a male around now:

Lots of ruddy ducks here now.  And, I saw some lesser scaup, too.  Not that many gadwalls, though.

I think this might be Neo, who just turned 6 months old a couple days ago.  He's soon to be the star of his own YouTube slideshow called "Neo, the Duckling that---LIVED!"

This male crested pekin was looking silly running up to me:

Hey guys, wait for me!

No, we are going to swim over here now.

Lots of western grebes kreek kreeking:

And, some killdeer in the ballfield, but I am not sure who they are.  They look like Puffy Band, but one looks a little bit like Miracle.  I think, though, they are not any of the ones I regularly observed:

Afternoon with the 7 ducklings (Part 2 from this morning)

I decided, after seeing Fish Food Mama lose one of her ducklings this morning, to spend some time with her this afternoon.  It was about at this age and this exact time of day last month that Peaches lost her next to last duckling.  Fish Food Mama is using the exact same area that Peaches used.

Honestly, I don't understand how she didn't lose more ducklings today or any other day.  For one, this juvenile gull, either a fledgling ring-billed or California gull, was right where they were found.  Several ducklings almost ran right up to it.  Mom seemed totally unconcerned about it.  I nudged it further away from the family.

He still hung around in the water and on the beach.  Mom tried to keep the ducklings away, but some of these guys just do whatever they wanted to.  The gull left, but came back, later, almost landing right where the ducklings were (probably because that's where he took off from), but I waved him away.  He hung around again, but left.

Like I did with Peaches the day she lost one of her last ducklings, as I sat, close by,  meditating.  Mama and her ducklings came up to me.  This time, I stopped to take photos:

Dabbling Lesson:

Mom called her ducklings out to the water and decided to give them a dabbling lesson.  A juvenile coot was also there to instruct the babies on how to dive for food.  It was so funny how the ducklings tried to imitate the young coot who really seemed to want to be their friend and show them how to find food.

Mom demonstrated how to dabble:

Here's how you dabble, babies

And, they tried to imitate her, but some ended up doing all kinds of somersaults and flips instead.

Like this, Mama?

No, you have to do it this way.

Later, she went to take a nap and only three ducklings joined her at her side.  The other four just kept running around, on their own, away from her.  I think a couple more joined her on the beach after I came up and they began to peep for Mama.   While I was there, no ducklings were lost.  I think the only thing saving them was the fact that there were fewer people feeding the birds, because the weather has been hot, and attracting the gulls.  However, if Mama can't get her ducklings to be more obedient, she's going to lose several more.  So, I am trying not to get too attached.

Across the lake, another mother duck, the mom of the two ducklings, screamed her head off for about five minutes.  A Cooper's hawk had attacked something and it greatly distressed the mother.  Both ducklings were fine, but she moved them away from that area.  The hawk stayed in the tree and remained in the tree even after I left.

I couldn't stay any longer and hope that Mama doesn't lose any more babies.

Another duckling update:

Neo!  He's almost 4 months old (18 weeks) and will be getting his green head, soon.  He still stays close to his mother, but is not as friendly as he used to be.  I almost had to chase him down to get a photo of him.  He spends a lot of time in the algae blooms, far away from where I can get a good photo of him, otherwise.

A few duck pictures

I just went to the lake and I just stayed long enough to look for the ducklings and take a few pictures of the ducks.  

At first, I thought this female was Yellowcheeks, but it wasn't.  

Yellowcheeks and her two ducklings were seen yesterday, doing well.  I think that the weekend crowds have caused her to move away from the area.  Her ducklings are still extremely small, though, which makes me wonder about them.  They are two weeks old now and should be much larger and starting to get their first feathers, but they still look like one week olds.


This is a picture of another duck that looks and acts like Neo.  He even has the special pale eyelids and the paleness around the mouth and throat like Neo has.  I'm still not 100% sure this is him as his bill is way too yellow.

Pepper is acting much more confident and is even bossing and dominating some of the other ducks.  He made this other duck in front of him very nervous and he moved out of Pepper's way.  Pepper deliberately walked towards this duck to make him move even when he didn't have to.  The other duck is fine and even walked beside Pepper for a short distance. I thought it was Pepper's brother, at first, but he was making squeaking baby noises and Pepper's brother doesn't do that.

Pepper does a good job of keeping his broken wing's feathers in as good shape as possible.  He even flaps and moves both his wings around, but I can tell that the broken wing still hurts a little because he doesn't extend it all the way out when he flaps it.

The new rouen duck that looks like Cinnamon's Twin is very flirty and is calling all the other males to meet her.  Her boyfriend is trying his best to protect her.

Last Friday, at the ballfield where Miracle, Killer Jr. and their little chick used to stay, I noticed one of the power lines to the field's scoreboard had fallen and was draped over the fence.  I hope it's not live as it fell in the area where the little chick squeezes through the fence into the field.  I also hope none of the other killdeer were affected.  I suspect this event happened sometime earlier in the week and I know that Smudge and Peanut are OK as I've seen them since then, but am not sure about Pollux.  Right now, there are a lot of bugs around the lakeshore and canals and many of the killdeer are spending time there instead of the fields.

Ducklings still here

"Yellow-cheeks" was seen today, but only for a brief moment before she went back into hiding.  She still had two ducklings.  At first, I thought they were both the dark ducklings and the last yellowish duckling had disappeared.  But, when I look at the picture below, I can see that one duckling is noticeably lighter than the other.  He must have gotten darker over the 5 days I didn't see them.  They are now 10 days old.

Mom is definitely a descendant of Fish Food Mama.  I think this might be one of Caramel's babies from last year.  Perhaps the one that I saved from the fish hook.

Still no sign of the lone yellowish duckling that someone else saw last week.

I finally got to see Fish Food Mama's ducklings again, by themselves.  But I think I only saw four of them.  Here's three coming towards me.  I think the four I saw were two males and two females.  Indy might have been around somewhere.  I think he's got a crush on one of the ducklings that were dropped off last week that are the same age as him.

I think this might be Sweetie:

A male duckling:

Across the lake, an injured young ducklett has made friends with the pretty female who might be Big Daddy's daughter from last year.  I know that this particular duck did not have any ducklings of her own and the other one that looks like her still has very young ducklings.

But, they seem very attached to each other.  I heard of a duck that had a fish hook in her leg and almost got strangled by fishing line.  I wonder if this is her.

I think this might be Neo, but I am not sure.  His bill mark and other characteristics are very similar to Neo, but he seems more mature.  Neo turned 3 months old last week and is at the age where head markings change just before he gets his green head.

He also was sitting near a young girl duck, which also makes me think it might not be Neo:

The four dumped Pekins are still alive.  One has tape around his leg, but it's beginning to come off.

I saw a few coots around the age of these two next ones.  This is the age they're supposed to reach before they are chased away by their parents.  These two chicks are almost the same size as their mom, but mom doesn't care for them and gets annoyed if they squeal too much.  However, I saw no violence between adult and chick, just a lot of "shut up!" vocalizations by the parents.

I saw this young killdeer this morning.  I think it just started to learn how to fly as it looks like Tiny did when he was about 7 weeks old.

This might be the same bird, but from the other way around.  You can see some down on the chest.  There was another killdeer protecting him, but I couldn't get a good photo:

I think this might be the one protecting him, but I am not sure.

Neo's mom returns

Neo

I saw Neo with his mom early this morning, though she didn't seem very interested in Neo.  He does seem to love her, though, and will come running to her if he hears her quack.  I think I see some greening on Neo's bill similar to what older male ducklings have.  Not sure if he is, though.

Neo's mom

Neo is beginning to get his feathers and his head shape is a lot like his mom's.  He will be a month old this weekend:

Fish food mama still has five ducklings, now 11 days old.  Here they are in the very early morning:

Independent duckling

With his brother

 Here they are later.  At first, they settled into this one spot, but then their mom's mate forced them to move further away from her.

Trying to take a nap

There was a red-shouldered hawk nearby, but the king birds chased it away.  Red-shouldered hawks have been known to kill small ducks, but the ones here, so far, seem only interested in the squirrels all over the place.  Mom did a quick "quack!" and they all ran back to her:

Mom keeps one eye open for the hawks while her babies sleep:

I saw this new family today.  The babies are so much tinier than Fish Food Mama's:

A raven decided to go over to where Squeak and Pollux were taking care of their chicks, panicking them.  I think all three chicks got away as I don't even think the raven saw him.  Pollux went after the raven as well as a couple other birds in the area.  But, he stayed a fairly long time.  I went to go look for them, but they stayed quiet and I didn't see them.  I did hear Squeak calling for the chicks later on.

Junior was being a pain to photograph, but his mate was on the other side of the lake, feeding.  Here she is:

In Junior's territory, Killer Jr. and George III were playing "nest scrape and territory ownership" games.  Killer Jr. did his characteristic twitchy jumping around to claim the territory:

His brother, George III, claimed the territory by scraping and doing kill-dees.

Here is a photo of the first two coot chicks I've seen this year.  One of the parents just went under water to get some algae for them to eat:

I also came across this black-crowned night heron trying to eat a fishing lure.  I tried to see if I could get it away from him, but he acted like he would just carry it off if I approached him, so I let him be.

Spoonface (Bossy) duck:

Big Daddy is losing his colors:

And, the gadwall is molting, too: