Hooded merganser at Lake Murray and other birds

I arrived at Lake Murray before sunrise, but there was a full moon, so it wasn't too dark:

I saw this weird gull.  It wasn't that big, but I think it might be a western gull.  Those are the most common gulls around the lake right now.  But, someone's been spotting a glaucous-winged gull which I can't find.

I've noticed that the scaups and ruddy ducks are hanging out closer to shore lately.  I think it was because there were so many on the lake.  The numbers seem to have gone down a little:

Beautiful male American wigeon:

Here are two of them:

Wait, what was that thing with the crested red head behind them?

It's a female hooded merganser!

It's the first time I've seen one there, though they have been spotted at other lakes in the area:

I'd like to mention that Baby Blue has been walking around with an enlarged crop.  I hope it's not the beginning of an impacted crop.  It seems soft and flexible, so it might not be impacted.  I think he's going over across the lake and pigging out on someone's bread before he comes back to where I usually see him.  It seemed better this morning, but still worrisome:

San Diego South Bay birding with a curlew

I took a short trip to the south bay this morning, visiting the Bird and Butterfly Garden, the sod farm, and the 7th street area.   It was my first trip to the Bird and Butterfly Garden and the sod farm where I hear of a lot of unusual birds, but I didn't see a whole lot.  Here are a few pictures:

At the bird and butterfly garden, I saw a ruby crowned kinglet, but couldn't get a photo.  I also saw several dark-eyed juncos.  Here's a photo of one of the males.

At the sod farm, I didn't see a whole lot, either.  I saw about five hawks and several turkey vultures sitting in one area, which I thought was kinda strange.  Two of the hawks flew off when I went to take a photo.  I think they were a family of three or four juvenile red-tails and an adult.  Here are three juveniles and a turkey vulture:

One flying off:

Here's one that looks like a dark morph, which is unusual for this area:

I saw at least two kestrels, one at the Bird and Butterfly Garden and one at the sod farm:

At 7th street, I didn't seem more than a few birds and a few ducks.  It was low tide.  I saw mostly killdeer and this long-billed curlew stayed close by.  Here he is eating what I think might be a mussel:

Whenever the killdeer flew over, he stood very still and did not move for several minutes before feeding again:

Very still, watching:

I saw him also eat several fiddler and sand crabs.  He was very thorough and I would bet he ate just about every crab and mussel he came across.  None of those stood a chance with him.

Crazy killdeer baths and a few duck pictures

It looks like Miracle and her little family were in store for a bath today.  I think I saw two young killdeer, Miracle, and maybe Killer Junior whose leg might have gotten better.  They're missing one of the babies.

Here's how you take a bath if you are a killdeer:

Start with at least one killdeer:

Miracle

Step into the water and get wet all over, using your bill to get water to the skin in places where you want it to be:

Make sure you bounce so that you make big circles:

Once you get out of the water, make sure you thoroughly spread oil all over your feathers, even if you have to turn your head upside down:

Be sure to get those hard to reach areas near the base of the tail:

Make sure you fluff up and shake all the water off.  And, voila!  You're have just finished a bath!

Nearby, a shoveler was feeding (with a coot):

I also saw Pepper today.  I wonder if his wing hurts and it twitches a lot:

He was with his brother and "cousin duck".  Just like old times:

A female black phoebe was catching flies:

There she goes!

Near Pepper was the vulture brigade.  There was a dead coot there and they have almost finished with it when I saw them.  They even eat the feathers:

All killdeers! My favorite bird.

Killdeer are my favorite birds.  :)

Today, I saw a family of five killdeer flying around near Padre Point at Lake Murray.  I think it might have been George, his babies and maybe a new mate.  I did see some "large, round" killdeer of which one might be Martha, but I'm not sure.  Or, it might not have been George at all.

Here's one of the daughters.  She looks a lot like George.  I think I had one picture of George with her, but it was blurry.

This is the male killdeer that has taken over Padre Point and was challenging George.  I think he might have been interested in George's daughters, though.  He's very young, probably three months old and could be related to George or, perhaps, Georgina and Spike.  He yells at all humans just like Junior did.

On the other side of the lake, I found Miracle all alone.  It's not the first time she's been there all alone, but I worry about her mate, Killer Junior, because I think he's the one with the broken leg.  He might be taking care of their three grown chicks:

Killer was also there and was with a female that was not Dee.  I don't know who she is, but they seemed to know each other:

That's the female in front with Killer in the background.  Perhaps she's a daughter since I know Dee is still his mate and he hasn't taken a new one:

November 2013 counting day

Killer and Dee flying away

Today was my counting day at Lake Murray.  This time of year, counting can be a real chore and take most of the morning to do.  This year, I've counted the most coots that I've ever counted there, 1568, and those were the ones that I actually saw.  There might have been another hundred or two that I didn't see.

I only saw one black-crowned night heron, today:

There were a few green-back herons around, though.

I came across some turkey vultures waiting for a pair of gulls to start eating a nice fish when this pelican came, scooped up the fish, and swallowed it.  Here he is swallowing the fish.  He was the only pelican there.

Lots of nutmeg manikins.  I can recognize them by call now and I've found about four different populations of them around the lake.
 

Finally saw my first northern shoveler today.  Usually, they're the first migrating ducks, but this year, they were late:

Also saw my first American wigeons, though they stayed far away:

A pair of gadwalls.  I think this was the ones that might have been released by Project Wildlife.  The male has red feathers on his wing:

There's quite a few scaup at the lake now and I think I also counted a record number of ruddy ducks:

I saw four killdeer, two of which look like Killer and Dee.  Killer is George and Martha's son hatched in the summer of 2010:

Killer

Dee

Here's a close-up of Killer:

I think this might be Dee, but could be Killer again, but most likely Dee:

I won't go into detail about all the other birds I counted.  There were hundreds of yellow-rumped warblers, but not as much as I expected.  And, very few lesser goldfinches, too.

Louie, the Chinese gander, is swimming around the lake and I saw him way on the other side where Bumblefoot is.  He's herding the ducks around there.  I hope he doesn't hurt them.  I wonder if he's looking for Jill.

Ring-bills, teals, and woodpeckers

There's still at least one teal at Lake Murray.  Here she is with a male mallard.

There are so many coots, scaups, and ruddy ducks now:

Baby Blue, the dumped domestic duckling,  seems to like to eat Mazuri waterfowl food. He's gotten a lot larger, lately:

Though he is now mostly feathered out, his feathers are not in good condition.  I suspect that his previous owner didn't feed him very well and now he's growing up on junk food.  I hope his condition improves:

I found this blue heron standing on a railing.  I guess if they can hang onto branches, they can stand on a rail.  I think this might be the mom heron or one of the babies.  Mom heron was very grayish like this one:

Finally saw some ring-billed gulls, three young ones:

This Nuttall's woodpecker was out in the open when I first saw him, but when I turned the camera on him, he began to hide from me:

Someone said they spotted a glaucous-winged gull there, but I didn't see him.