15+ ducks dumped in one day

This morning, I found 15 new, terrified, domestic ducks dumped on the lake.  A few of them had those cute crests on them.  They extremely scared of me and after they went into the water, they stayed there for hours.  I understood why when I saw a big pile of white feathers nearby.  Apparently, one of the Pekins had been caught by a predator.

Across the lake, the usually duck brigade waited to be fed, though I think they had eaten already.

Zippy was seen by herself over there, and possibly Skippy, too.  They were fully feathered with their wing feathers, etc., so I think they're off on their own now. They are 2.5 months old.

I think this might be Neo, still not sure, but it sure looks like him.

And, the female redhead is still sticking around:

Shy and her mate are still around and Shy's mate still loves to yell at me.  But, when Shy is not around, all he does is make a pitiful deet.  For some reason, he doesn't follow his mate over where all the other killdeer are.  I can hear her calling to him, but he mostly doesn't want to go over there unless he has to.

Not a lot of killdeer for this time of year.  Mostly Shy and her mate, Pollux and his three babies, and Miracle and her one baby.  Sometimes, I see Killer Jr. there, but not a whole lot.  There's also no ruddy ducks or yellow-rumped warblers there, yet, and they should be there by now.

Indy returns!?

I am not 100% sure that it is really him because his bill is so dark, but, perhaps that was one of the side effects of the anti-biotics they used on his fish hook wounds or the food they fed him. 

Or, this isn't Indy, but one of his brothers.  However, one brother is much larger than Indy and I think the other one has an almost all green bill and is more developed color-wise:

I didn't see any sign of any damage to his feet or legs, either, but it would be hard to see, anyway.  Hopefully, they got all the fish hooks out, including the ones way up in his thigh:

In case you missed his story, about three weeks ago, he was found with a large fishing lure with six barbed fishing hooks in his leg with a long piece of fishing line attached.  Most of the hooks were cut off, but one was too deep and couldn't be removed, so he was taken to a wildlife rehabilitator.

Here he is hanging out with a bunch of other ducks on the boat ramp where he had started to hang out before the fish hook incident:

Zippy and Skippy are almost totally mature.  Here, Zippy is trying to catch a piece of bread that someone threw at her.  Her mom is on the right.  She is very feisty and active when it comes to food:

Here she is:

And, here is her brother, Skippy:

The lake is starting to fill up with coots, they're everywhere all over the place, hundreds of them:

And, the killdeer still haven't started migrating through.  Here is either Smudge or her brother, hanging out in George's territory.  In the ballfields, Shy's Mate and Shy were seen as well as Pollux and his two other chicks, and a couple others.  I think I saw Miracle there, too.  I have no idea where Squeak is anymore.

Curlews and other birds at Famosa Slough

The migrating shorebirds and ducks are coming in.  I saw this long-billed curlew there:

He was very itchy:

This willet was itchy, too:

Quite a few stilts, including a couple juveniles.  Perhaps the juveniles are from the nest I observed a month or so ago:

Marbled godwit:

Short-billed dowitchers, looks like two juveniles in this photo:

More dowitchers:

Least sandpipers:

Northern shovelers, blue-winged teal and stilts:

And, a whimbrel:

Just a few bird updates

The duck in the next photo might be Ducky, but I'm not sure.  There was another duck that acted and looked like him in another spot of the lake.  

This might be Ducky's girlfriend.  I think I also her brother there, too.  Ducky and his friends have been together for over two years since they were still ducklings.

I'm not sure, but this might be Sweetie, who looks like her Mama, Fish Food Mama:

The pretty female redhead is still there:

I found out that the Pekin duck on the left is a female, which is bad news because that means she will have about fifteen to twenty males after her.  The duck on the right is her boyfriend.  I hope he can protect her.

Here's the latest photo of Zippy, looking good!  Now, over two months old:

Her brother, Skippy who has a pretty green sheen going on with his head feathers.  Zippy also has that sheen, but not as much.

I don't know who this is, but he/she was in George's territory.  It might be Smudge.

Here is Miracle and she doesn't like that killdeer in the previous photo.  I caught her chasing him/her around. If the one in the previous photo is Smudge, it could be that Miracle is trying to chase her away because of an eligible bachelor killdeer in that area.  She might be trying to give her own daughter, Little Miracle, an advantage to snagging a mate.

Pat, the duck with the white on its head, seems to have found a friend.

Duck and killdeer update

The killdeer are all scattered around, still.  I'm not sure who this is in the first photo, but it might be Little Miracle:

I am pretty sure this is Smudge, I think her sister Peanut might have been in the area, but got scared off.

For some reason, they seem to want to befriend Miracle, but I don't think Miracle was happy with them being around:

Pollux was seen all by himself making sad deets. All three of his chicks are off on their own and I don't know where Squeak went to.

After not seeing her for a while, "Mama's Little Weakling" was seen in her usual spot in the canal.  She is going on six months old now.

An update on Cinnamon and one of her boyfriends:

And, Big Daddy:

The ducklings, Zippy and Skippy and their mom, Yellowcheeks:

And, finally, two coots having an argument.  But, they resolved it peacefully, which is unusual for coots:

How the birds handle the heat

Today was coastal cleanup day and I went to do some cleanup at Lake Murray, but it was over 100 degrees there today when I was there.  Yesterday, it was about 106 degrees.  

Here's how the birds handled the heat:

The gulls and many of the coots stayed way out in the middle of the water:

Here they are.

The ducks stayed in the shade, at least when human children weren't trying to chase them away.  Here is Bigboi almost asleep.  I worried about him because he's getting old for a feral duck:

The two young "snowy" ducklings (almost three months old) decided to sit near him:

And, I saw the red-tailed hawk sitting in the water as well.

But, for the killdeer, it was business as usual, or even playtime as they chased each other back and forth all morning in the heat.  I saw at least seven killdeer in George's territory.  I thought I saw George and his grandson, too, but the photo was a little blurry.  It may have been Killer Junior and not George that I saw.

I don't know who these are, I think it's Pollux and George IV:

I think this might be Peanut and Smudge:

Many of the killdeer were standing on one leg with the other waving in the air:

Miracle was taking a dominant position on a rock:

I didn't see Pepper today, but I did see him on Tuesday.  He's been hiding a lot, lately.  I wonder what is going on with him.  I also didn't see Zippy and Skippy, but when it's hot, they move to another part of the lake.