Tiny dumped duckling

Yesterday, I got a call about a "gosling" that had hatched at the lake that had spent the night in the freezing cold rain and hail the night before next to his dead friend's body.  I knew that none of the geese were tending a nest or even breeding, so I went over to take a look and found this guy:

When I first saw him, I thought he was a Pekin, but he had a weird shape, thick legs, and a weird shaped head that was triangular like a goose.  He was also found hanging out with the geese and the worker who found him was pretty certain he was a gosling.  I took him over in a crate to the geese and though several were curious about him, none seemed to claim him, so I know he wasn't one of their babies.  He was also the wrong color, all yellow.  There are only three all white geese there and two are male and one is a female bonded to a gray male in which both breeds breed gray and yellow goslings.  So, I knew he had been dumped there.

Before I left to go look at him, I sent an email to several people with my cell phone number attached so that they could call me while I still had them.  There's pretty much a no tolerance policy with animals at the apartment where I live, so I couldn't take him home.  I went to a couple of feeds stores and they couldn't provide a heat lamp.  Consider that he was already hypothermic, I didn't want to leave him anywhere that wasn't warm, so I decided to take him to the local wildlife center to see if they can take him.

Well, on the way there, I got a call for someone who would take him in case the wildlife center couldn't (and they couldn't.  The next step was to bring him to the animal shelter).  So, I brought him to her house. She already has several chickens, ducks and a couple of geese and wanted to get some more.   So, she took in the little guy and kept him warm.

It turned out he wasn't a gosling at all, but a jumbo Pekin duckling, probably about one to two weeks old.  He's just old enough where he would begin to be weaned off a heat lamp, but still way too young to be out in under 40 degree wet weather.  So, now he has a home and is going to be one spoiled ducky from what I could see of his new owner's other animals.

Too bad about his friend, though.  If I had seen them before the storm, I could have saved both.

In other news, Oreo was seen trying to hang out with the 4 "babies", which are actually a group of four Pekin drakes that were dropped off last September.  They are actually not babies, but I call them that.  Oreo still misses his friend and even though he follows Cinnamon around, I think he still identifies himself with Pekins (even though he's a Swedish duck).

Last Day of the Great Backyard Bird Count

I did all four days of the Great Backyard Bird count and counted 83 different species.  On Saturday and Sunday, I had to work, so my counting time was short.  I took the photo above of Famosa Slough on Sunday.  The falcon was stirring up all the birds and I got to see dozens of killdeer circling around as well as a willet, avocet and whimbrel who all left the area due to the constant fly over of the falcon.

Today, I went to the South Bay where there wasn't much going on.  The tide was mostly out and most of what I saw were sandpipers like below.  I think three of these are western sandpipers.  The one on the left might be a least sandpiper.  I saw only a few least sandpipers today.

The power plant is now gone, but some of it remains in a pile:

Eventually, the tide started coming in and I could see, in the distance, a long-billed curlew, avocet, and I think a couple black-bellied plovers.  There were killdeer, marbled godwits, and willets, too.  I also saw several savannah sparrows.

I went over to the Bayside Park in Chula Vista and saw a red knot.  At first, I didn't recognize it until I saw the chevrons, but asked for help to ID it because of the black legs:

There was also a juvenile reddish egret, too:

I was disappointed that several species that I know where around a few days ago weren't there during the count.  This includes scrub jays, spotted towhee, Forster's terns (though I thought I heard one, I wasn't sure, so I didn't record it), Caspian and Royal terns, Eurasian wigeon, glaucous-winged gull and yellowlegs.

Great Backyard Bird Count Day One

Today was the first day of the four day "Great Back Yard Bird Count".  This year, people are counting birds all over the world, not just here.  Because I work on weekends, I did two counts.  The first one was at Lake Murray where I counted 55 species (but only 54 are being "counted" because one of my sightings was a barn swallow that is out of season in this area).

To my surprise, I found the little call duck alive this morning!  He was near his usual area and hanging out with another male mallard.  I thought he had been caught by a coyote, so I was really surprised.

I think this *might* be Zippy, one of the last ducklings to hatch and survive last year.  She looks a lot like her mother in the face, but her body shape is a little smaller and rounder.

And, look who I saw.  It's Bossy!  His ring is back around his neck again.  You can see where he had it around his head before.  He's so healthy otherwise.  Hopefully he will continue not to have any problems with that ring.

I think Bossy likes Zippy.  She seemed a little bit indifferent to him.  She's still young.

Then, I went over to Fiesta Island and counted birds there for almost an hour.  There were some marbled godwits and willets there.  That willet is excited about that seaweed and wouldn't share.

Another willet somewhere else.  He was hanging around a flock of gulls and walking up to a couple in a car who was stopped near a trash can.  That was strange.  I think he was just curious about the people in the car.

Another marbled godwit:

I am not sure, but I think this might be a herring gull getting ready to molt into his third year.  I thought it was a juvenile western gull, but the colors are not right.

Brant, coots and buffleheads:

This brant came up when I called.  I think he/she was curious about me.

Cold morning

This morning was cold and there was frost everywhere.  It's actually been cold with frost for several days now, but it might be warming up starting tomorrow.  The photo above is, I think, one of the two babies the "Snowies" had.  The "Snowies" are either a snowy mallard pair or a Welsh harlequin pair with at least half mallard.  You can see a little frost color on these two boys, the only survivors out of six ducklings.

 Below is a photo of Pepper, the duck with the broken wing on the other side.  I don't like his shape, it looks similar to Scoop in regards tot he belly area.  Pepper has a Cayuga shape, but the puffyness around the legs bothers me.  I'm hoping it's just fat and not water on his belly.  He's behaving normally.

"Baby" goose is being a jerk and chasing all the ducks around.  I think this confirms he's a gander afterall.  He no longer hangs out with the rest of the flock, but off to the side and on his own.

Something's wrong with Big Mama Cooper; she's acting weird.  She flew up right in front of me and landed on a tree trunk and didn't move even though she was looking right at me.  I started to take my camera out and she flew up in this other tree and didn't move.  I noticed in the photo that one of her eyes seems swollen and possibly draining. But, I think she might have been bathing a few minutes earlier.  Either that or she was sleepy.  She hardly ever lets me look at her for too long.  She seemed very tired and stayed in this tree for a half an hour.

Smudge was about twenty feet away from Big Mama, being quiet and blending into the ground.  But, she seemed unconcerned about the hawk.  I know she knows what a Cooper's hawk is as she lived where one regularly hunted.  She seemed fairly unconcerned about her.  She was pretty much the only bird in that area at that moment that a Cooper's hawk would traditionally hunt, so I was worried.  But, after I left I came back to check later and both of them were gone.

RIP "Scoop"

Scoop died last Saturday.  That day, he was caught and put in a crate in order to get him some help from a rescue center, but he died soon after being caught.  It was only a matter of time before he died from this problem as it didn't get better.   The Wednesday before,  I checked on him and he was barely functioning, but still alive enough to run away from me.  I almost grabbed him then, but I think it was already too late for him.

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A few photos and "Scoop" the sick duck

Northern Shovelers

This California thrasher is a long time resident at Lake Murray, but he's very shy of me.  It even upsets him if I walk by sometimes.  But, today, he, at least let me take a nice photo of him before flying off.

The sick duck is still alive and is slightly better.  I named him "Scoop" for his scoop-like bill.  However, he lets me get way too close before moving away, so I think he really feels miserable.  I think he's been sick for a month now, but I don't remember his crop being this big until about ten days ago.  I am still waiting and seeing if he will get better since he's had it so long.  I have a general rule that if the animal is eating, drinking, and moving around OK, I wait and see.  The exception is open wounds with heavy bleeding or infection, or broken bones that have broken through the skin.

He is trying to push his crop down and groom his chest in this photo.  It also looks like he might have a little ascites in this picture, which would mean he has an overall digestive issue or could have a fluid problem.

Also, it looks like, indeed, the little call duck has fallen victim to the coyotes.  I took this photo a few weeks ago when he was looking better after being sick for a while.  But, before he died, I did noticed he was hunching over again a little.  So, he may not have been strong or alert enough to fly away.

Helping at the Fiesta Island Least Tern Site

Today, I went to Fiesta Island to help the San Diego Audubon Society work on their little patch of land on Fiesta Island where the least tern nest.  I had worked that area last year, but this year they set aside areas of land to hand manage.

We were mostly taking out tumbleweeds and cockleburrs.  Here are some cockleburr seeds:

And, here is a cockleburr plant.  Fortunately, it had been raining the last few days, so the ground was soft.  They were easy to pull with their fairly shallow roots.

Like last year, there were killdeer here.  I think it was a family of three.  The one on the left is a young male.  The one on the right might be a female, possibly the mom.

This might be dad.

Lots and lots of horned larks, too!

And, a Say's phoebe:

On the other side of the island, away from the site there was a skimmer skimming:

Some godwits and willets.  There was a dunlin hanging around with them, too, but the picture I got of him was blurry:

A godwit and dowitchers. 

And, there were brant on the shore.

This brant let me get really close.  I could have gotten closer, but I am not familiar with the warning or nervous behavior signs of brant and I know geese can get mean, so I didn't get any closer than I needed to.  He seemed to be very calm, perhaps he didn't feel well:

I haven't been to Lake Murray in a few days (except to find Oreo, which I did and he's doing well), but I remember seeing a pile of feathers near the bench where everyone feeds the ducks.  I couldn't figure out who they belonged to because the feathers were fairly light in color,  but had a little mallard pattern to them except smaller.   There were other feathers around, too, including a lot of gray down, gray feathers, and a light-brown primary flight feather.  I recently realized that I haven't seen the little brown and gray male call duck since I found the feathers.  I didn't think he had any mallard-like pattern to his feathers, but I saw the photo I posted a couple weeks ago and he does have a mallard pattern to his feathers around his shoulder area.  He was sick recently, but got better.  But, he may not have fully recovered and I think a coyote might have gotten him.  He had been there for a very long time and may have also been a bit on the older side.  He could fly extremely well, though.  But, I don't think he's been flying much lately.

Fun gulls and other birds at Lake Murray

I found a couple of fun and pretty gulls at Lake Murray today.  I think they might be Thayer's gulls, but I'm not sure and will see if anyone can identify them.  UPDATE:  They are small herring gulls, not Thayer's gulls. The key is the pale eyes and the dark wing tips.  I usually see herring gulls larger than this.

The photo above and the next two are of the adult.

It was swimming about with this beautiful juvenile.

Both adult and juvenile are smaller than a western gull, but at possibly as big or a little bigger than a California gull.

I saw a northern flicker, too.  Not terribly unusual, but the first time I've seen one at Lake Murray:

The killdeer are still around the ballfields, but I didn't see Smudge and her new mate.  In this next photo, it appears to be an adult male and two juvenile males and a juvenile female.  The male looks like Pollux, but could also be Shy's Mate (now named Yeller).  I thought I also saw Miracle and Killer Jr. hanging around, too.  Miracle looks a lot like her grandfather at that age.

This little mallard in the next picture is in big trouble.  He's got an impacted crop and I think he's been like that for several days. I think this is the duck that hasn't been feeling well lately, possibly for the last few weeks.  I saw him eat a lot of grit and rocks, which might be good and help his food pass through.  He was running around normally and even ate a few pieces of bread (which might make things worse!) before drinking some water.  Then, he tried to push the food down with his head.  It really looks bad.  I've seen this happen to another duck and it got better, so I am waiting a little while to see what happens with him.

I don't think this is Indy, even though he was very friendly like Indy is.  I think this might be one of the 8 mallard ducklings someone dropped off last summer.  I thought I saw Indy hanging out with Neo and eating healthy plants and insects in another area.

"Oreo" is missing!  The black Swedish duck known as "Oreo" was not seen at all today.   I couldn't find him anywhere, though I thought I heard his deep voice calling from where the body of his friend was found a couple of weeks ago.  He's not following Cinnamon anymore, so I can't predict where he will be.  The coyotes are very active right now, so I fear he's the next to "go missing."

Mystery Warbler:  The "mystery warbler", the possible Virginia's warbler, was heard very briefly today, but not seen.  He was heard close to the area where I last heard him around the 1.25 mile marker, but closer to the water this time.