Lake Murray flooded

George and Tiny's feeding area was completely flooded

Lake Murray's water level was so high from the recent rains that it overflowed into the parking lot. But, today, it was just at the edge. It also covered some of the walkways. Picnic tables and trash cans were also several feet offshore.

This is what usually is a little peninsula jutting out where people can fish from

The reeds the ducks like to hide in

These picnic tables are usually several feet away from the water's edge

The ducks were loving it, but Tom was being grumpy with me. All he could think about was preening and pulling out his under-feathers. I called and called him and he didn't come to me. When I walked up to him, he jerked away and hissed at me. But, I managed to get him to come up and get some food from someone else.


A lot of people were feeding a lot of food to the ducks today. They were really hungry. I hope they didn't get sick from gorging on all the food. The parking lot will be closed tomorrow, but I'm sure someone will be there to feed them.

Many of the ducks were missing or not seen. But, I did see Flycatcher:



And, Chocolate 2, now named Cinnamon. She was calling loudly for the boys and several of them answered her:



I found this crested duck courting Cinnamon. I think he's one of this year's ducklings, possible one of the "Chocolate" ducks:



The hurt duck was there and he seemed to be doing slightly better, but not much:



This heron was enjoying his time on one of the picnic tables separated from the shore:



I ate an apple and tried to throw it into a trash can a few feet away from the water's edge and missed. This coot grabbed the apple core and swam away with it. I was worried, a little, because apples seeds are deadly to ducks, but I think it was OK. The core sank under water and it's unlikely that they ducks will eat the seeds anyway:

Come back with my apple!

The ospreys could be heard calling back and forth:



And, I got a photo of this Say's phoebe at the ballfield:



And, when I was leaving, I saw this little kestrel. Hopefully, it was after mice and not the black phoebe nearby:



No killdeers today. I did hear a few, but saw none anywhere.

Merry Christmas!