Birdy update

Not a whole lot going on bird-wise.  I got a close up of this wood duck whom I think is Doodle's Son (the one whom I called Doodle's Placekeeper).  He looks like his dad after his last breeding season.  I'm betting this guy is now "retired" and may not be breeding anymore.  We shall see if he gets his colors back next year.  Usually, when they get scruffy like this, they're near the end of their lives.  Doodle lived over a year in his scruffy phase.  He appears healthy otherwise.

The Canada goslings say "hello".

Troublemaker is still under-grown and fuzzy on his back.  But, he is showing some growth.  Here he is next to his mom:

He might not be a Brewer's duck because he's getting blue speculum feathers.  But, he still looks different from a regular mallard:

He still has a lot of white on his belly:

I love watching the terns doing courtship.  Here, a female is waiting for her male to bring her something to eat.  I also saw a juvenile Forster's tern:

I couldn't identify these, at first, but they're cowbirds.

I saw a California gnatcatcher family, but only the mom let me take a photo of her:

The domestic ducks seem to be mostly fine, though I think something is going on with the Pekins.  I think we might be missing a couple of them.  It's been hot and this breed of ducks don't do so well in hot weather.

Ducklings are now in!

Finally, we're starting to see ducklings--a lot of them.  I am seeing new broods every time I go to Lake Murray in San Diego.  Last Tuesday, I came across the mom that had four ducklings, but now she had two. 

After I had taken their picture and walked away, mama duck began screaming her head off.  When I came back, one of the ducklings had somehow gone a long distance in a matter of about 30 seconds.  I'm suspecting a young gull or crow took him, but dropped him when mom went after him.  Both ducklings were re-united after a few minutes.  However, I didn't see those two ducklings or their mama today, so I'm not sure if they made it.

Last Tuesday, I found Boat Dock Peaches with one duckling.  I didn't see the duckling today, but I did hear Boat Dock Peaches screaming her head off at the males as she usually does. I don't know if she still had her one duckling:

I did see the other mother who had four ducklings who still has three that are growing large.

Another mother with four hatchlings:

This mom had six or seven ducklings.  I thought I saw her with seven at first, but later I only saw her with six.  Here she is with 5 ducklings:

Troublemaker is still very small, but mostly feathered now.

He's still about half the size of his siblings:

Here's a few of his beautiful sisters:

And, finally, the baby Canada geese are nearly full grown and are flying a little:

Ducky update for August

Here's a ducky update for Lake Murray today.  We have a new dumped duckling (above), who is still fuzzy.  He has a raspy peep, so I think he's a boy.  He left with the other ducks and seemed to be calling for someone, but I didn't see any other domestic duckling associated with him.

I think this might be Stretch and his mama:

Mom wouldn't let the Project Wildlife duckling sit near her son.

Pepper is hanging out with his brother.  The Pekins are picking on him.

Cow is still alive.  She's the only female in that big flock to survive breeding season:

And, Oreo has joined the big group of Pekins:

Greater scaup at Lake Murray? Update: Lesser scaup!

I came across this duck at Lake Murray sitting amongst the mallards this morning.  At first, I thought he was a new lesser scaup, but his behavior was a bit unusual.  I never see lesser scaups laying on the shore unless something was wrong with them.  This one seemed pretty comfortable on the shore.  So, I thought, maybe it was a ring-necked duck because the tip of its bill looked a little lighter than the rest of the bill and its head is a little flatter.  Ring-necked ducks often sit on the shore, too.  But, after looking at it again, the duck doesn't quite look like a ring-necked duck and it seems a bit larger than a lesser scaup, too.

So, I think it might be a greater scaup, but will try to get an expert opinion.  This next photo is unaltered other than resizing and my signature:

Here he is, walking.  I did some lighting adjustments on this one:

If it is a greater scaup, it would be the first one that I've ever seen at this lake or inland at all.  If it's a lesser scaup, it would still be unusual for this time of year.

***Update:  I looked at some other photos of lesser scaup (including the one that was there until last month) and he is a dead ringer for one.  So, I'm thinking this is just a larger than average lesser scaup.  Still pretty unusual.

In duckling news, one of the moms that had four ducklings a few days ago now only has two.  They're starting to get their tail feathers:

This was the mom who had three ducklings a week ago.  I love it when they get to this age, about 10-14 days old:

This duck was across the lake where Bumblefoot was.  His mama is a Flycatcher mama, possibly Flycatcher herself.  He's about two weeks old:

I think the next two photos are of the "Canal Ducklings" who would be about 7 weeks old.  However, they appear to be younger than 7 weeks and still have some down.

It looks like there is one male and two females with this family.   Mama's mate was being really mean to them, but they were kinda jumping around nipping at the adults, too.  Mama is the one in the back:

Also, I thought this was strange.  This baby coot is well over two months old, is almost as big as mama coot, and is still getting fed!  Coots tend to stop feeding their chicks after two months and chase them away at three months.  He had several siblings which died early:

Baby update

Though I did take a lot of photos a few days ago, I didn't think everyone would want to hear about all the ducklings I saw.  But, here's today's post that also has a lot of ducklings.  The one in the photo above was, more or less, alone and was near where there were two ducklings a week ago.  I don't think he was one of those ducklings, but a new one.  I do think his mother was there as there seemed to be one female he stayed close to and sorta kept an eye on him.

The mama below has four ducklings that I also saw on Sunday:

Here's a photo of her on Sunday:

there was a second mother there with four ducklings, too:

This one was by himself for the longest time.  I don't think he's that healthy:

So far, I only have one definite male in Fish Food Mama's group. Here are some of her daughters:

In the middle, there is one definite male out of the ten:

The duckling on the left of the next photo always separates herself from everyone and seems lethargic.  I don't think she's feeling well:

I also saw four baby coots.  Since coots regularly commit infanticide for various reasons, I'm surprosed to see this many babies this far along.  It's been a long time since I've seen a family of more than two babies at this lake:

Here's two of them begging for food:

And, one getting fed (or having food shoved at him):

I got my first least bittern photo:

This snowy egret was cool:

The magpie duck dropped off last month is doing OK.  I still don't know what happened to his gray crested friend who disappeared soon after he was dumped.

Oreo is still alive:

And, I saw this strange rumpless duck.  He can hardly walk, but otherwise seems normal.  I *may* have seen him before.  He's more deformed than injured or ill.

And, finally, we have to say "good bye" to Donald, the oldest duck at the lake.  Something got him as he's now gone and there were feathers everywhere on Sunday.  It's especially sad because he seemed very depressed at losing his friend Buffy2 last month and was, finally, starting to act like himself again.   He had been there at least four years.  Bigboi, the Cayuga duck, is now the oldest duck there.

Still no sign of Snowy, but her mate was also missing today.