Tiny becomes a "ballfield killdeer"

Tiny has made himself at home in the ballfield

Tiny, one of George's 2 month old chicks, seems to be comfortable in the Lake Murray ballfields and was hanging around with Secret, Digger, an unknown young male and his look-a-like today. In another field, Shy, her dad and the "baby" killdeer were hanging out together. Shy and Digger have been watching Tiny and the other juvenile males with interest.

Shy hangs out with dad and watches the teenage "boys"

Two adults were in the large field, Field #7, all alone, keeping an eye out for hawks. The male Cooper's hawk was across the lake in George's territory trying to catch pigeons and terrorizing the ducks. George and the rest of his family were not seen even though the water levels have gone back down. I suspect that's because he's watching over young chicks. It's unknown what the role of his two last "teenage" chicks (Firecracker and Killer) are playing regarding the new babies (if any).

Tiny's a bit of a bully, it seems, and often starts fights. Secret seems to be his main target, though other juvenile males will take part. But, Secret is not a sissy and often fights back.

Secret , I think (left) and Tiny (right)

Challenge displays between Tiny and Secret

"Ow!" Tiny gets bit

Most of it is play much in the way that colts and bachelor stallions play-fight between each other. It's good preparation for adulthood.

In other lake news, there was some kind of fire in the reeds between the 1.75 and 2 mile mark along the walking path. It's a weird spot as it's not a popular fishing area and the fire seemed to have started near the road. I don't know any of the particulars about it such as when it started or how, but it seems odd. I hope it's just an isolated incident and not the start of a trend, especially as the season gets dry. Birds have sensitive lungs and breathing passages and fires in the area would devastate many of them.

Fire damage to reeds

Top of the reeds burned due to fire

I'm glad there are no baby coots or ducklings right now. The song sparrows seem to actually like hanging around the burnt reeds, I hope they and the marsh wrens didn't have any nests in there. The burned plants have a really sweet smell like someone is barbecuing with mesquite.

Naming the killdeer

Someone pointed out to me that there may be confusion as to what the numbers mean such as M6, M2, etc. I have a hard time picking out names and killdeer often come and go, so I didn't name those males. Killdeer are also hard to distinguish in just a glance and often I have to use binoculars or photos to tell them apart. It doesn't make it easier that they often turn their backs to me. Also, I didn't want to name them because when you name an animal, it becomes more personal and I didn't want to get too attached.

Anyway, I am going to be assigning names to some of the more commonly observed killdeer that I write about. I will also be changing the "territory map" to reflect current observations that I've seen recently, as killdeer are starting to breed in this area.

Here are some names I've picked out:

• M1= He will still be called "Little Male" in my posts, but also can be called "Junior".
• M2="George"
• F3= "Martha"
• M2's second mate more recently observed: "Mary"
• One of M6's chicks is named "Digger", but could be changed later
• M4= "Grandpa" or "Old Male"
• M4's most recent mate: "Bo"

I haven't figured out what to name the M6 male, yet or the other males I've seen.