George defends his territory

Today, there were lots of things happening in killdeer-land at Lake Murray and I will be posting the events in two parts. I will begin with what was going on in George's territory.

Tiny was seen early in the morning in the feeding area.

Caught Tiny sleeping this morning

However, he was gone a few hours later and two males were spotted feeding along the shoreline. One male was very, very hungry and eagerly tried to eat every bug he could catch. They were also both very easy to approach and watched me with curiosity. They looked like "Surprise" (the M6 chick's half brother who is 3 1/2 months old) and his older friend (The "Tiny look-a-like," a male about 4 1/2 months old) who has been like a brother to him since he arrived at the ballfields.

The "Tiny look-a-like" and Surprise (behind)

Well, to my surprise, George, who sees and knows everything that goes on his territory, showed up and was not happy about these two males in his feeding area eating all his food, so he was very aggressive towards them.

George chases the older juvenile

Surprise was actually scared of George and even hid behind a rock to keep from being attacked. One time, he was chased away, but did not want to leave his companion behind, so he came back.

Surprise (right) looks surprised (note the feathers on his head standing up) at George's aggression

George eying Surprise

George chasing Surprise away, but he came back

I think these young males were there to see Firecracker, who was probably sent away by George. That would explain the alarm calls they made when I went towards the area that she probably went. I didn't see her, but she might have been there a short time before. I think she may have been at the ballfields a week or two ago. They did not challenge George, but would not leave the area, which made him upset.

Later, George went and took a long drink of water. It was warm out today. I hope he's OK, but he does tend to drink a lot more than other killdeer most of the time.

Also seen:

Ducky was there with her duck friends:

Ducky was sleeping

I also got a photo of a white-crowned sparrow:



A juvenile herring gull--first I've ever seen:


And, a juvenile snowy egret:




Sad news:

In sad news, another dead coot was found in Alvarado bay. It was actually floating on top of the water with his head underwater. A friend of the coot came by to check on him and got scared. All the other coots stayed away, too. Eventually, he sank under water a few hours later.

I think when they get tired or weak, they have a hard time holding their head up and drown when they are too tired to keep it out of the water. It's possible it was sick and died in its sleep last night. Too bad.

Part 2: Shy (an M6 chick) is popular with the boys.