Lake Update

I thought I would check on the birds at the lake and everything is still the same, it seems. Tiny is still staying with the new female and his mom, Martha. Martha is getting along with the new female pretty well, except she does get a little mean sometimes.

Tiny plays games with his new mate

Mom is still not sure if she approves

Tom, the muscovy, tells vultures: "I'm not dead!"

Tom, the big, black, muscovy duck at Lake Murray was having his daily nap across the bay from where he usually visits me early in the morning. Some vultures started to surround him, but he woke up and probably began a hiss-fest at them. I could see him moving around, but couldn't hear him. The vultures then left him alone. Sometimes, vultures will attack animals who are not yet dead, but would be too weak to defend themselves. Tom needs to get more lively. He's old, can't see well and, I think, might have some kind of arthritis, but he's not dead. It's possible that he didn't react fast enough because he couldn't see them very well. But, if he was attacked, he would be more than capable of fighting them off.

"I'm not dead!" Tom says (that's his third eyelid over his eye, shielding from the sun)

I wonder if that happens to Tom a lot nowadays.

Ducky, the "lost" duckling is still around and still with all his duckling-hood friends.



I also saw a couple of red-head ducks, a male and a female:

Male (with coot)

Female

The egret was still very much in concentration. I never saw him catch anything, though, but he sure was patient:



A couple of ducks have not be seen in a while since Bill stopped feeding them. Chocolate, the large mallard-rouen-runner mix is missing, but may be with her buddies somewhere else on the lake. When she's on the water, it's a little harder distinguishing her from the other ducks at a distance. She can't fly very much, but she made it all the way to six months old, so she's probably fine. Also, Snowball, the white mallard, hasn't been seen in a week. Either he was captured or flew off with his buddies. If he flew off, he may be back.

Lots of seagulls today! There are people bringing large rolls of bread and feeding them to all the birds. I heard someone complain that there were too many seagulls, but I never saw them until now. They may be there because of all the bread still being fed to them. Also, some of them looked like ring-billed gulls who visit here in the winter.



And, finally, here's a little video I took of all the geese and ducks: