Osprey Day

George races the egret

Today is a tropical feeling day and we have some tropical moisture moving over us. It rained early in the morning and it looks like it will rain in the afternoon, too.

The killdeer are all moving around all over the place and I think I even saw some new "faces" around the lake. Killer still seems to be hopelessly in love with Shy and follows her around. Lately, he seems to be sticking up to her dad, but still hesitant to fight him.

Tiny, I think

Killer

Martha has been around with Firecracker and I think I even saw Digger, Shy's sister, too. She looks a lot like George. When I arrived, she came to greet me, first.

Martha, Firecracker and, I think, Digger

Osprey:

The lake osprey was very active today and I got several shots of him. He was hanging around where the juvenile male Cooper's hawk used to hang around (I haven't seen the hawks, lately, though) and where the killdeer chicks hatched.






Also seen:

This may possibly be the baby duck that I used to see when I sat on a bench and watched him play around me until he disappeared just over a month ago. I think he's about seven weeks old now:



Also, this handsome mallard couple:



And, a Western kingbird. These birds look similar to a Say's phoebe except it's slightly larger, a more elongated shape, different bill shape, and the gray "hood" is more rounded at the bottom rather than an inverted triangle.


A juvenile red-tailed hawk was also seen, but didn't get a photo. He was being shadowed by the osprey. I think he wanted squirrels.