Little duckies everywhere!

Scaups

A whole bunch of small diving ducks have invaded Lake Murray. Over a hundred ruddy ducks are there now and they have been joined by a lot of lesser scaup and redheads.

The killdeer are beginning to return to the ballfield. I think I saw Shy and her boyfriend hanging out with her parents in the ballfields. Shy's dad is not thrilled with her new mate, but they're getting along OK.

The M6 parents and Shy

In the other field, I can't identify all the killdeer, but I think Secret, Surprise and the Tiny-look-a-like were there plus a couple others.

The "Tiny look-a-like" and an unknown killdeer

I still haven't seen George, Martha, Tiny and Firecracker in a while and I hope that the vultures weren't looking for them on Sunday.

Here is Killer and Digger, hanging out.

Notice how their bodies and feathers look fully filled out like full-grown killdeer now.

Killer spotted a red-tail from miles away, but was not overly concerned about it.



Here's a photo of the red-tailed hawk:



Duck and goose news:

I don't think I saw Ducky, but Caramel and Butterscotch, two of the "fish food ducklings" almost got run over by a car today. Their mom, also, stepped right in front of a truck as it passed by, too. All are OK, though, but that was scary. The fish-food ducklings are three of my favorite ducks at the lake and they just reached breeding age. I want to see if they're going to be good mamas like their mom. The drivers were being careful, but sometimes the ducks move unpredictably. Luckily, they don't hang out in the parking lot too much.

Good news on the missing gray goose: I found him and his friend all the way on the other side of the lake. I don't know why they went over there, perhaps they're going to have babies and wanted to have time to themselves. I can't tell if they're male and female or which is the gander and which is the geese, though. Unfortunately, this area has large predators such as coyotes and bobcats, so I fear for them a little bit. I hope they come back to the flock, soon.



Also seen:

I saw two kingfishers, here's a photo of one of them:



And, I thought I would add a cute photo of some pied-billed grebes.