Busy day for Martha and the kids: Visitors

Martha (back left), Shy and Tiny (front, right)

Today was a busy day in George's territory and it was hard to figure out what, exactly, was going on or who was doing what. First, I think, it started out with the M6 dad and Shy stopping by on the north side of the main parkinglot during the foggy part of the morning. Shy was actually very curious about everything, but her dad was wound up and kept doing alarm and check calls every time he saw any humans in his sight.

I guess Martha and Tiny heard the noise because they came over and investigated. Martha pretty much took to making aggressive displays toward Shy and her dad and Tiny mostly tagged along for support, but didn't get too involved. I think most of Martha's aggressive behavior was toward the female, possibly thinking her a rival for her mate.

Martha, I think

On the other side of the parking lot, I first spotted Killer by himself. But, later, it would seem that Martha and Firecracker were there, too, Martha having flown over as I walked back. Martha almost immediately took her daughter away from there before Tiny and the M6 dad flew over with Shy.

Firecracker with the ducks

Killer was very calm and casual, taking a bath and grooming himself. Shy came over to him and one of them began to make aggressive displays, I think it was Killer. Shy did not respond with the same motions, but one time she looked like she was going to give Killer a nip when he turned around while doing a dip-down display, but thought twice about it. She seemed interested and curious about Killer and even made a couple of clucks and displays at him, too, but not very aggressive nor did it seem as though she was flirting with him.

Shy

Killer, before his bath

A little way's away, Shy's dad was making his way towards the couple. But, Tiny was making it very clear to him that he did not belong there by making territorial "kill-dee" calls at him. I left after that as these things can take hours, or days to resolve. It looks like these two families may be starting to come together. However, they're still young, so it might be several months before anything happens.

I think this is Tiny

M6 (Beautiful) Dad "I'm just looking out for my baby girl!"

Across the lake, I could hear several killdeer doing alarm calls through the fog, but I did not go over there to see what was going on with the rest of the lake killdeer.