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.

Why I love Killdeer

I've been watching Molly, the world famous barn owl, on Ustream ever since about a week before the famous Max owlet was born. In the background sounds, I could hear the killdeer and they sounded pretty annoying, constantly calling all day for hours and hours. Then, I remembered an experience I had when I saw the cutest little fluff balls run out in front of me on the beach at Imperial Beach over twenty five years ago. They were just about the cutest things I've ever laid my eyes on. Mom seemed panicked, though and acted like she had a broken wing. I didn't mean to almost step on them, I didn't see them when I went to go swim in the water. I found out later that they were killdeer.

Killdeer chick photo courtesy of the NPS

I began to browse around and found other people's photos and videos of their own experiences with these birds and their incredible cute killdeer chicks and I became more and more attached. Recently, I have gotten myself a stuffed killdeer bird with the social call recording on it so that I can hear their sound any time I want. You see, I live in an apartment in a very busy part of San Diego, not really killdeer friendly.

My stuffed killdeer with sound

Just very recently, I got a pair of binoculars so that I could view their natural behavior without bothering them. Killdeer, when they're not on the nest, don't like people getting too close or following them around. They are very nervous and shy. If you are patient and sit quietly, they may come back your way and check you out, but not at as close a range as other birds I encounter. They are not known to be naturally curious and their only concern about you is whether you are going to eat them or not.

When they are on a nest or with chicks, they will allow you to get much closer to them, and, of course, the newly hatched chicks can't run very fast at first. That is usually why you see a lot of photos of frozen-still chicks, eggs, and birds doing the broken-wing act of which these birds are famous for.

Killdeer doing a broken wing act.
Photo Courtesy of Audrey and Wikipedia Commons

I don't have a zoom lens, yet, so I still have to get closer to the birds than they are comfortable to even get a half-visible photo of them. I plan to get some equipment very soon, but funds are short right now.

So, for future posts in this blog, there may be better pictures to go with my personal stories.

I would like to suggest, however, that if I start blogging about killdeer nests or chicks and someone recognizes the where exact location of the nest via my photos (I will give a general location, but try not to be exact), please try to keep it to yourself. If you must see this nest, be respectful of the birds, visit quickly, take your photo, and back off. I worry about these birds' chicks all the time.