More ducklings are hatched

A new mama just hatched out six ducklings at Lake Murray right near where Peaches was nesting. I think it might be Peaches's mama.

They are kind of strange looking:

These three got separated and are calling for mama. They had a hard time going over the rocks. But, they made it.

Peaches nearly got drowned this morning with five males attacking her. They were pushing her head down onto the concrete walkway that was under water, making it hard for her to get her head up to breathe. They were also nearly killing Little Guy, one of her mates, who was trying to defend her. But, eventually, they left.

She only has 8 ducklings now, and is still sitting on her nest. I heard a gull got one of the ducklings, yesterday. I don't know what happened today.

For some reason, this one duckling kept biting the mouth of the black and yellow duckling:

Maybe he had just eaten something yummy. He kept nipping at him. Usually, I don't see them bullying each other when they're this young. At this age, they're usually just trying to survive:

King of the rock:

The goslings are growing, but there's not a lot of grass on the lawn. It's not being watered because of the drought, from what I've heard.

Howard's old bullies are outcasts and hanging around the outcast baby geese from last year. I guess they figured they can bully those guys.

I didn't see Uno at all today. Snowie, his mother, was missing for a couple of hours, then she suddenly showed up without him. I don't know if he was hiding or not. Snowie seemed unconcerned, but she rarely is when it comes to her ducklings.

I also saw two baby osprey in the osprey nest and at least one baby heron in the heron's nest.

Peaches's Ducklings and Uno

I made a surprise visit to the lake and discovered that Peaches had a brood of about ten ducklings.

She also still had almost as many eggs still on the nest.

She had mostly mallard, but one black and yellow duckling, too.

This drake is, most likely, the father of most of them:

Back on her nest for nap time.

Sadly, as of last Tuesday, Snowie only had one duckling left. I didn't think he would survive much longer. However, today, he's still there and getting bigger. He's now over two weeks old and almost too big for the gulls and already too big for crows. Still small enough for herons. I've named him Uno, but really want to hold off on really naming him until I make sure he's makes it a couple more weeks.

He's always losing sight of mom:

Wandering away, once again:

Sad update on the family of six goslings. It appears that one went missing just like last year. I don't know if someone took him or something got to him.

And, Miss Squeaky was rescued today. She was sick and injured from the males. Here's a photo I took of her last Tuesday. She looked much worse today.

Something is wrong with eyes. They keep foaming up and the membrane seems to be sticky.

More duckling photos and baby goslings!

Snowie seemed to have shown up with an entirely different brood yesterday morning at Lake Murray in San Diego! She had only one non-mallard duckling and six mallard-type ducklings. I thought she lost her brood and stole another brood.

But, nope, I looked back at the photos I took a few days before and she originally had about 8-9 mallard-y ducklings and only 4 multicolored ones. So, it would seem that nature selected for the mallard coloring.

This is the last of the non-mallard ducklings:

With his siblings:

Having a rest under mama:

Escape! If you've ever observed a mama with ducklings, you will know that the ducklings are in control of everything. Mom just tags along to make sure they're OK.

Escape!

This is the little weak duckling that I'm surprised has survived this long.

She gets very tired easily. But, don't give up. The last duckling I thought was too weak to survive was one of the few that made it to adulthood in that brood. So, maybe this one might surprise me.

The first brood of new Canada goslings are at the lake. These guys are a few days old. I expect a second brood along in a few weeks.

The brood from last year seems to have disappeared except for one. I hope they have left for good and gone up north were they should be.

First ducklings of spring 2015!

First Lake Murray ducklings award for 2015 goes to Snowie, again! She had them about a week or so earlier than last year. There were 13 and she's managed to hold on to all 13 for at least two or three days.

The whole brood together, all 13 of them.

RIP Howard, AKA Picked On, AKA Outcast:

Howard got a broken wing last week and was taken in to Project Wildlife. He didn't survive. This picture was taken on the day he went in to the hospital. He was actually starting to do better and was eating again on this day.

Squeaker and the male of the pair that adopted her look for Howard where he was last seen. Howard helped Squeaker learn how to be a goose and was the one who got her integrated into the group.

Miss Squeaky, the Pekin may need to be rescued, soon. She's getting a bald head. As soon as she starts showing raw skin or bleeding, a rescue attempt will be made. Right now, she's showing a lot of wing itching, probably from being mounted.

Update with bird festival, gbbc, and ducks

Since I've last posted, we've had the Great Backyard Bird Count, Bird Festival and a lot of other birding things going on. I see lots and lots of breeding behavior in all animals right now. We had a little rain, but it's also been extremely hot, too. I know I included the first day of the GBBC, but not the other days.

I didn't take any photos at the bird festival. I was mostly there on Sunday at the Big Sit and one other lecture. I did see a lot of gulls and a few ducks in the river. The weather was great and I'm sure the out of town visitors had a great time. I hear they had decent bird sightings on most trips.

At Chollas Lake on the 15th, I saw this friendly spotted sandpiper who reminded me of Bob:

I think is is Mylee the gosling at Chollas Lake I posted about a few years ago. She seemed to know my name.

I found this stilt and avocet enjoying the Otay River Mouth area.

Around the end of February, I saw this turkey vulture at Lake Murray wearing a wing tag. I found out that he was banded in Fallbrook about two years ago as an adult. He was part of a study of migrating turkey vultures in Orange County. I've seen him a couple times since then, but not much.

I thought this female house finch on the cactus looked pretty cool:

This gull is humongous! Bigger than a lot of the ducks, even.

One day it rained, and Peaches and her boyfriend came up to my car. Peaches has a nest now. She's getting up there in years.

Pepper's wing actually looks a little better. It's not sticking out sideways as much as it used to:

This little girl at Lake Murray looks to be a khaki Campbell. She's quite a loudmouth. I named her Skeeter after another khaki Campbell who is a celebrity.

Saw this cinnamon teal at the lake on the 8th.

And, today, I saw Snowie, who I think is also sitting on a nest. Her two boys have been seen a lot without her lately. I found duck parts near where they were standing, but, of course, it was not her.

The Great Backyard Bird Count Day 1

Today is the first day of the 2015 Great Backyard Bird Count. And, of course, I timed it to go with my monthly bird count at Lake Murray. Unfortunately, many species decided not to come out today. It was also extremely warm and dry out, too.  Most of the usual suspects were out and about.

Here are a few photos I took. I didn't take too many and half of these are of domestic birds:

Northern shovelers (all male)

American wigeon (all male)

This next one is of that domestic duck across the lake whom I haven't named.

The two Babbas, domestic geese:

And, I threw in this picture of a gopher trying to get some greens, lol. (he wasn't counted)

I also saw some horned grebes and a couple of western bluebirds, too. Conspicuously absent were scrub jays, Say's phoebe and swallows.