New Project Wildlife Ducks at Lake Murray

A bunch of new Project Wildlife ducks were released yesterday at Lake Murray after being raised and rehabilitated. One of them was so cute. He still had a peeping voice and when his friends got too far away, you can hear his little duckling call. They are usually released when they begin to grow their primaries, usually at about seven weeks old. I know they're releases because there are no surviving ducklings that old at the lake right now. In fact, there's been very few ducklings seen so far this season. This is the second group released this year.

That's not fishing line in that one duckling's mouth, it's algae.

Rainbows and Rubber Band

Double Rainbow

I got to the lake early in the morning and saw a great rainbow that went from one end of the lake to the other, but I could only get a photo of one end.

Some people in other parts of San Diego got photos of the entire rainbow from end to end.  I also saw some rain to the north of the lake later on.  But, no rain at my house or at the lake, either.

Pat was the first duck I saw this morning, before it was light.  She was scared because she couldn't see me, but later walked up to me when it got lighter out.  Today, she has decided to be a girl duck, some days, she thinks she's a boy.

I found this little duckling hanging out with some other wild mallard ducklings the same age in this one area.  They all seemed to act like brothers, so if they were dumped, they were all dumped together.  However, this one duckling has a rubber band under his tongue on the bottom of the bill.  From the marks on his bill, I suspect that the band had been around his entire bill at one time.  If humans dumped or released him, I don't understand why they wouldn't remove the band from his bill as it poses a choking hazard.  The duckling seemed mostly unbothered by it, except I did see him gulping a lot and acting like he was trying to swallow something at one time.  The band seems to be a bit loose, so hopefully he will lose it or it will break apart, soon.

I'm going to name him Rubber Band, or Bandit when (or if) he gets older.  Here he is with two other ducklings who appear to all be about 7 weeks old, about the age that Project Wildlife releases their ducklings.

There was a female duck with them that was watching over and protecting them as well as talking to them.  Sometimes wildlife rescue agencies give ducklings to motherly ducks to raise and release them all together.

All the ducklings are boys.

Here they are in the daylight and now I can see that the dark duckling is a hybrid mallard-Swedish duckling who will probably look like Pepper when he grows up, perhaps darker like Not-Pepper.  The mama doesn't look familiar, though I have seen females like her at the lake before.  She might be native to the lake, but I find it strange that they would suddenly show up at this age if they were native.  

However, she does look a LOT like Zippy, which means the ducklings *could* be both Oreo's and Neo's ducklings if they are native to the lake.

I think I also saw Bob1, the spotted sandpiper,  in the morning and tried to get a silhouette photo of her in the sunrise, but she would have none of it.  She flew away and called to a second spotted sandpiper whom I think is her mate or her offspring (more likely her mate as females don't really participate in mate rearing, especially after they have learned to fly).

The new Pekin was discovered over by the duck bench last Friday, but I haven't seen him anywhere, since.  Hopefully, his owner came and picked him up or something.  There's no sign of a predator attack and there is no reason why he would have been caught any more than any other of the Pekins there.

And, finally here's a photo of Snowie and her fresh molt, looking more beautiful than ever.  I don't see her or her mate that much anymore for some reason.

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:

"Stretch" might have a girlfriend

In my last post, I mentioned a lady who had released (or tried to) release two ducks from the local wildlife rescue agency.  One took off and the other was unreleaseable and was taken back to the lady's home.  Well, I think I spotted the one that took off last week near the boat docks quacking her head off.

When I approached her, she took off again. Definitely was not friendly to people.

This male duck seemed interested in her and came to check her out when he heard her quacking.  I also heard at least one female doing a "mama quack" in answer to hers off in the distance.

Later, she showed up on the other side of the lake and immediately went right up to this other young duck about the same age.  At first, I thought maybe it was one of the family with two ducklings that I originally thought were both boys.  I thought maybe I was wrong about that family and one was a girl, afterall. However, the mother duck, seen on the shore in the bottom of the photo, is the mother of Stretch and not the mom of the two I was thinking of.  Stretch is almost exactly the same age as the new female is.  Mother duck and the female duckling were having an extended conversation, for sure.  The conversation sounded almost like a parent lecturing a teenager, but it looks like she was accepted into the family.  The other duckling never took his head out of his feathers, so I couldn't tell if he was male or female and can't confirm that it is Stretch for sure, yet.

The lady who raised her said the duckling was wild from the start and didn't seem to get along or like any of the other ducks.  But, now it looks like she's might have a new family.  We shall see if Stretch will be her new boyfriend.

Hooded oriole nests and other birds

Today, I discovered at least two hooded oriole nests at the lake.  I've been passing by this one all summer and watching the male be aggressive towards other birds, but never saw this nest until today.  The only reason why I saw it was because the almost-grown babies were so loud and boisterous.

While I was there, the mom came and fed the babies, but I don't see an opening.  It almost appears as if she fed them through the nest.  The opening is supposed to be at the top of the nest, but I didn't see her go near there.  This reminds me of a weaver bird nest.    I couldn't get a photo of mom feeding them.   I left and came back a little later and dad was in the area. He was only tolerant of me being there for a minute, then got upset, so I left.

I don't like to "park" myself at nests like I've seen some people do just to get a photo.  I try to only stay a short time, then leave.  I don't want to do anything that would draw attention to the nest and "parking" at a nest site, in plain view, puts the nestlings at risk of being noticed by predators.

Mama osprey was up on a branch watching the fish jumping around in the water.  There were some fishermen in a boat "pushing" the fish and causing them to come to the surface a little more.

I only see the mom hanging around, no sign of her mate.  The two babies had a bad fate.  One couldn't fly and is doing OK in a wildlife rehabilitation center.  The other had to be euthanized due to a severe fishing line injury.

Here's a photo of two of the three baby coots who seem to be getting along better nowadays.  The other one was in a different spot nearby.  I think that one is the youngest and still being fed by his parents.

On the other side of the lake, I met someone from Project Wildlife who was releasing a couple of ducklings back to the lake.  The first ducks, a regular-sized mallard looked around for a few minutes and took off quickly.  It got chased around by a coot a bit, but he quickly hid, only the sounds of his little feet paddling could be heard until he found a safe spot.  The second duck was a hybrid that looked a lot like Cinnamon!

Unfortunately, she kept following people around, so she was caught and taken back home and will be released at a farm, instead.  Though she and the other duckling were handled and treated the same way, she has too much domestic duck in her and would rather be with people.  This is a reminder not to dump domestic ducks in a wild area as they create these hybrids who have a slim chance of survival and a shortened lifespan.

Pip and Peeper taken to Project Wildlife

Pip (right) and Peeper (left)

Yesterday, I saw two young ducklings all by themselves. I think that they're the missing "parking lot" ducklings. I don't know where they've been all this time, but they were alone when I saw them. Their real mom was nearby with Poquito, the third duckling. But, mom was only keeping the one duckling warm and ignoring the other two. But, they didn't seem distressed, so I let them be.

This morning, they were still in the same place they were yesterday, but I went for my walk and came back a couple of hours later. They seemed very lethargic in the morning, but all the ducks were that day, so I didn't think anything was wrong. But, when I approached them, one moved away fast, but the other could hardly move and fell flat down. So, I grabbed him and got a box. But, I couldn't catch Pip, the second one, so I let him go as I wasn't going to take one and not the other.

Pip watches over his lethargic brother, Peeper

I did see them both eat and drink and act healthy after I let Peeper go, though I could tell that Peeper couldn't keep up with energetic Pip. A coot came by and attacked Peeper pretty bad and he couldn't get away. Then, all the other ducks started attacking them, including their mom and Poquito, their brother. Someone else came by later and helped me catch both and I took them to Project Wildlife. I sure hope I did the right thing as the lady at the desk seemed upset about me bringing them in. Peeper just seemed really lethargic and hardly moved while his friend, Pip, comforted him the whole time with cute baby duck babble.

I hated taking them in as I don't know what Project Wildlife is going to do with them. The person helping me seemed to be upset at me for bringing them in. I hope they just don't go right out and release them tomorrow or within a few days. Also, I would love to know what was wrong with Peeper. I'm hoping it's just a little hypothermia or malnutrition and nothing serious.

All three ducklings are between three and four weeks old. I am strongly suspicious that they turned up like this all of a sudden. They were acting like dumped ducks. I suspect they may have been stolen and returned to the lake.

Poquito is doing fine as are Ducky's ducklings and all the other ducklings at the lake. The older ones, such as the three sister's families are starting to wander away on their own.

Poquito

I saw the new ducklings in Cowles Bay today, down to six, feeding on algae in the drainage ditch:



D. and Killer have chicks:

Yesterday, I saw D. and Killer take their 5 to 6 week old chicks out to the feeding area. Both were male. Today, both of them were in the ballfields with three of the four older M6 male chicks, playing. I am not sure if Killer and D. had more chicks other than the two males.



And, of course, here is another shot of the roof killdeer. I thought he was George's grandson, but it's possible that it could be Spike, though I am not sure. He sure does look familiar. There are rocks on this slanted roof and I'm not sure if there's a flat spot where there could be a nest, but it's possible.