A few photos, plus a dumped duckling update

Today, I did my monthly bird count at Lake Murray and I counted the lowest number of coots and mallards since I started counting over two years ago.  I know about 20-30 ducks (wood and mallard) are with young somewhere and I know there are two gadwalls.  But, I can only count what I see at that time, so they didn't get counted.  Still, even when I add them, there aren't that many ducks around.

This was the only duckling I saw today.  At first, I thought it was one of the three that I saw a couple days ago, but this is a different mother.  I think this is her first breeding season.  I didn't see this little guy later when I came back to this spot.

I did not see the other moms with their ducklings that I saw on Wednesday, including the rouen duckling.  At first, I thought I spotted that mom without any ducklings, but it turned out that it wasn't her.  It's a good sign not to see her because the ducklings may still be with her.  The mom may have moved them to another area because they are now two weeks old and would be switching from a high protein diet to one with more plant matter.

This wood duck pair was still hanging around near where I saw them a couple days ago.  All the other wood ducks I saw were male.  The only other female there had 8 ducklings the last time I saw her a few weeks ago in early April:

Louie is not giving up on his quest to make Jill his mate.  She seems to be breaking down and not recoiling in horror whenever Louie gets up to sit next to her or follows her around.  However, she still doesn't want to be near him that much and often moves away if he gets too close.  

Update on the two dumped fuzzy ducks:

Some of you may remember me writing about the two fuzzy ducks, about three or four weeks old, that I saved from the lake after they were dumped there.  They didn't have any feathers at all and were taken to Bird Crazy.  Well, Bird Crazy managed to adopt them out earlier this week to someone in a nice neighborhood with a big yard and lots of other birds and chickens.  So, they will be well cared for and possibly spoiled beyond belief.  Thank you Bird Crazy for taking care of the little guys!

Goodbye Waddles:

Waddles, the big Embden goose that was the matriarch of the goose flock there is now considered deceased.  She has been missing too long to have been sitting on a nest.  Though others have said that she had gone missing, before, for several months, I have never noticed her being gone for more than a week or two.  She may have been sitting on a nest earlier in the year, but I doubt she has been sitting on one all this time and not getting up to eat or drink.  She's a very large goose and can't hide for very long, especially alone without any other geese.  She also had a lot of health issues and trouble walking.  My guess is either someone stole her, a coyote got her, or she died of health problems.

Other birds seen today included a few new ones:  Pacific slope flycatcher, Calliope hummingbird, and Cassin's vireo.  There is one other bird call I've been hearing, but can't figure out yet.  It sounds very thrush-like, but I can't pinpoint it.  I am still searching out that call.