Hello! Most of my posts take place around San Diego County, (Mostly Lake Murray) unless otherwise noted.
For more posts and photos, I also post on Hubpages, a site that is a bit different than others. Thanks!: Shorebirdie on Hubpages
Showing posts with label sunrise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sunrise. Show all posts

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Domestic duck update with baby blue duck


Here's another duck update post, but, first, I wanted to mention a few other things.  The Moffitt's Canada goose (probably a gander) above has fishing line wrapped around his leg so bad that it's cutting into it and causing him to limp.  Several people have tried to catch him, so he's wary.  He has a mate and youngster with him, too.  I would suggest not trying to catch him without talking to people at Lake Murray first because he's gotten wary of people chasing him around.  They may decide to wait a little bit until he's less wary.

While I was watching him approach me, I saw several tiny fish jumping around on the surface of the water.  They're the favorite prey of many smaller predators like killdeer, yellowlegs, and egrets.  This egret, though, got a fairly large fish from near shore, but was having difficulty swallowing it.  I didn't see if he got it down (it's fairly likely he did because herons and egrets can eat fairly large prey) or if the gulls took it from him.  He noticed the gulls doing calls and tried to get it swallowed, though.



Now, on to the domestic ducks.  The duck that was dropped off a couple months ago is best friends with that mallard.  They were even head bobbing at each other.




The "blond" duck is trailing behind the ducks above.  I think he wants to join the "boy band".



Bumblefoot was very energetic and is looking good today, but still limping pretty bad.



Now this is the duckling I'm worried about, the baby blue Swedish.  He's still there, but I think he's not getting enough to eat.  Also, I think he might have some body temperature control issues.  While he seemed fine and normal early in the morning, he was found lying out in the middle of the hot sun near the water's edge (right where a hawk could just grab him) when all the other ducks were in the shade.  Two coots were watching over him.  He also gets picked on by all the other ducks, so he can't go near them.


Edit:

We had a beautiful sunrise this morning and I forgot to post the photos!  We're in for some tropical moisture this weekend:




Thursday, August 2, 2012

Sunrise with ducklings

One duckling was swimming with his eyes closed

I got to the lake right after sunrise, but I didn't have time to take many photos.  The moon was beginning to set:




Yellow-cheeks still has her two ducklings, but two big herons were in her area, so she was being very cautious.  Since there weren't that many people fishing there today, she took her time going to her usual spots.  The gulls spotted them, but didn't attack.



I took some photos of this duck, hoping it was Neo, but I think it's Indy.  (Actually, I think Neo was right at my feet as I took this photo, but walked away).  Fish Food Mama's ducklings are three months old today.  I saw Indy's two sisters with another youngster and I think his two brothers and mom was nearby.  He still has a squeaky voice, but you can hear the drake rasp making its way to the surface.


Though I didn't have time to take a picture, I think I also saw Bossy duck, but didn't see his ring, but it might be under his feathers.  He had a little crease in the feathers near where I last saw the ring.  He's still a cutie-pie.  And, I think I saw Ducky, too, and the eight mallard duckling drop-offs and the four Pekin dumpees.  I also saw the two young killdeers, one still has his fuzzy down chest.

This Forster's tern doesn't have to pay attention to no fishing signs.  Actually, I think it's a female waiting for her mate.  She looks like she's molting.



The Cooper's hawk is molting, too.  Here's one taking his morning bath.  When he flew off, a green heron nearby had a huge fit.  I don't even think the heron knew he was there and screamed for over a minute or two.