A new Pekin duck at the lake

It looks like we have a new Pekin duck at Lake Murray.  He's all by himself as the other Pekins haven't allowed him to be near them.  He is not friendly with people at all.

Here he is hanging with the scaups and mallards:

This scaup was hoping for a handout so that she can fatten up a bit before flying north.

Dougie found a mallard friend:

But, he didn't like this mallard, so he chased him away.  I don't know why he liked the one mallard and not the other.  But, I guess everyone has their preferences for friends and allies.

There were two fat killdeer in the Patriot field.  I think they're both girls.  One looks like she just molted her juvenile feathers.  So, I'm thinking, possibly, mother and daughter.

And, finally, a couple photos of a bushtit.

I love these cute little birdies:

Last day of GBBC in the South Bay NWR

Yesterday was the last day of the GBBC and I went down to the 7th Avenue Bayshore Bikeway bench to count shorebirds and ducks.  I also checked out the "10 ponds" on the other side from the bench.  Those are formally known as pond 10 and 10A.  Here are some photos I took while I was there:

Wow, so many sandpipers.  These are least sandpipers.  All the sandpipers that stayed close to me were least and there were over a thousand western sandpipers further away.  There was a dunlin in the second photo.

This curlew was cold as it was windy and foggy.  That's a marbled godwit nearby.  Look at how similar their plumage is.  But, note the thin, dark legs on the marbled godwit.

He was soon joined up with a second curlew who also didn't want to take his bill out of his wings.

The curlew was visited by a semi-palmated plover:

Marbled godwit:

Savannah sparrow:

 Says Phoebe

Back at Lake Murray, "Picked On" has been kicked out of the flock and appears thin and depressed:

A female redhead duck was resting on land:

More redheads were nearby with the coots:

And, Cow is still alive.  Here she is near her 5 boyfriends.  Breeding season is about to get rough in the next month or two.

Snow goose still at Chollas Lake

Went to Chollas Lake to count birds and found that the snow goose was still there.

Here she is:

Chollas Lake has a lot of domestic fowl.  Here's my boy, Arrowhead:

I think this might be Mylee, the gosling from a couple of years ago:

Pretty muscovy girl:

Handsome muscovy boy:

Oh deer! First day of the 2014 Great Backyard Bird Count

Today is the first day of the Great Backyard Bird Count.  I plan on counting on each of the three days, but I can't be sure.  Today, I went out to Heise Park and counted.  I also counted a little bit in the Santa Ysabel area.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get very many good photos because these little birds don't stand still very much.

First, I stopped by this little farm pond just outside Ramona.  I've been passing by there for years and sometimes see all kinds of things.  At first, I thought these were cackling geese, but they're just regular Canada geese.

There are a bunch of wigeons and cormorants on this side:

At Heise Park, my first bird heard was a scrub jay, but he only let me look at him for 2 seconds.  I saw or heard two of them there.

However, I saw several of these guys almost following me around.  He's an acorn woodpecker.

I also heard at least three turkeys, too.  And, lots and lots of spotted towhees.  One came really close because I was listening to different bird sounds to confirm my sightings and he was interested in all of them, not just the towhee ones.  So, I had avoid playing any recordings while he was around so as not to put him in any danger.  I thought I saw a Cooper's hawk nearby.  He seemed really comfortable with me and scratched around for food, but as soon as I pointed a camera at him, he ran into the brush.

I had a little surprise and they almost got away.  I found at least three deer near where I heard the turkeys.

In Santa Ysabel, I saw my first oak titmouse.  But, when I went to get the camera, it was gone.  This nearby scrub-jay was more co-operative:

All fluffed up.

Bigboi and white pelicans

Today at Lake Murray, there were four white pelicans staying close to shore or flying around.  I wonder what they were looking for.

Bigboi and Puff were, once again, on the lawn chasing the girls.

Here is a video of them "chatting me up" and the goose vocalizing:

I also saw some shovelers grooming.

That female above didn't like me looking at her, so she swam out towards the male:

The ducks and coyotes are on the move

When I went to Lake Murray a couple of days ago, I've noticed that just about every non-flying duck has moved towards the boat docks where there is the most human activity and lighting.  The only non-flying duck that hasn't moved there, permanently, is the one I call the "fake muscovy" whom answers to the name of "Doug" or "Dougie" in which I will call him from now on.  When I went to the lake today, I noticed that the coyotes are frequenting much of the area around the ball fields where Doug, the "blonde" duck and a cayuga and gray duck used to hang out.  There was coyote scat all over that area.  There are a lot fewer ducks hanging out there now.

Here's some photos of the ducks that are now mostly hanging around near the boat docks and main parking lot.  Six of the pekins are still hanging out around the 2 mile mark, but they sleep near the boat docks at night and leave that area in the middle of the day.

Here is the gray duck and his girlfriend (with an unrelated male in between them) whose eyes have cleared up since I last saw her.

The gray duck who was wandering around looking for other males to wrestle with:

The girlfriend:

Oreo and Baby Blue:

Pepper, sleeping.

I saw this young male killdeer who looks like George III and another male hanging out.  I think the two males are related because when the one male left, the other one called to it in a friendly way.

Today, I saw lots of small birds, including several California gnatcatchers who played games with me and wouldn't let me take a picture of them.  One was singing really loud, too!  I think it was because there was another male across the lake.  He was also mad at all the bushtits using his bushes and eating all the bugs.

Here is a juvenile white-crowned sparrow:

A common yellowthroat:

And, one of the bushtits, a male:

Redheads!

I heard a strange sound early in the morning that I couldn't figure out.  A little later, I thought I heard what sounded like quail, but it was coming from all over the place.

The sound actually came from the male redhead duck!

Heehuuuahh! Said the male redhead

Female redhead by herself.  She didn't like that male redhead:

Redhead among the coots:

This redhead couple sure were in a hurry to get somewhere:

I think this and another group of redheads were after them.  The males constantly called:

Rubberband and two of her brothers were nearby.  I think her third brother was off on his own, probably because he saw a female he liked.

The blonde duck has been hanging around the boat docks lately:

Pepper was with his brother.  He's so shy.