Crazy killdeer baths and a few duck pictures

It looks like Miracle and her little family were in store for a bath today.  I think I saw two young killdeer, Miracle, and maybe Killer Junior whose leg might have gotten better.  They're missing one of the babies.

Here's how you take a bath if you are a killdeer:

Start with at least one killdeer:

Miracle

Step into the water and get wet all over, using your bill to get water to the skin in places where you want it to be:

Make sure you bounce so that you make big circles:

Once you get out of the water, make sure you thoroughly spread oil all over your feathers, even if you have to turn your head upside down:

Be sure to get those hard to reach areas near the base of the tail:

Make sure you fluff up and shake all the water off.  And, voila!  You're have just finished a bath!

Nearby, a shoveler was feeding (with a coot):

I also saw Pepper today.  I wonder if his wing hurts and it twitches a lot:

He was with his brother and "cousin duck".  Just like old times:

A female black phoebe was catching flies:

There she goes!

Near Pepper was the vulture brigade.  There was a dead coot there and they have almost finished with it when I saw them.  They even eat the feathers:

Pool Phoebe

Here's a slightly blurry shot of the black phoebe who has been hanging around our pool. I think he is the son of the phoebe living in the next building. The neighbor's cat hangs out right where this photo was taken even though it's against the apartment complex rules to have pets in the pool area. But, the cat hasn't been seen in this area for a few days, pretty much since the phoebe started hanging around. I don't know if the bird attacked the cat or not, I can't imagine this little tweety bird is capable of doing that.

I just hope that the bird relies on his instincts and doesn't get caught by the cat, who shouldn't be there in the first place. I may say something to the neighbor if I see the cat hanging around there, though I doubt they will do anything about it.

Phoebes are everywhere!

Phoebe on my TV antenna

I've been noticing a lot of black phoebes in my neighborhood. But, now, we have one that likes to live near my pool! He's also a really loud caller/singer, too and has been aggressive with the finches. I think he's a juvenile and may be the offspring of the phoebe that lives near the building next door.

I couldn't get a photo of it at the pool, so I got a couple of photos of it on the TV antenna.

I've been noticing a lot of black phoebe birds in this neighborhood.

Here he is with a hummingbird who came to check him out:



The Lake Murray Killdeers:

The killdeers at Lake Murray are going nuts! They've been flying around to different areas of the lake, fighting and calling. Killer (George's son) and Shy (a grown chick from across the lake) have been flirting heavily with each other, I even saw Killer do a nest scrape and she inspected it. I think she wants to nest at Padre Point, but I don't know if she's old enough to lay eggs, yet. George and Shy's dad constantly argue with each other, however, George is very tolerant of his grown son being around. It's quite a difference between how he acts with his sons and how he acts with the M6 Dad.

In the "chick" area beyond the fenced area, something strange was going on. It sounded like two killdeer were being attacked by a predator. Other birds even flew out, I think they were mockingbirds. I didn't see any predators, but, one killdeer was "walloping" another one and giving it severe "leave us alone" calls. It may mean that there are still baby, flightless chicks there and Martha may have been trying to keep a strange killdeer away from them. We shall see. Hopefully, if there are babies there, they're alright. I don't hear any baby killdeer peeps. Perhaps it was Martha chasing a male away from her daughter.

All the killdeer are mixed up, it's hard to keep track of where each one is and I'm not going around the lake trying to find them.

Black phoebe near my home

I was working on some artwork and I noticed three phoebes playing around at the building next door. Two of them were males that were fighting a little, but one was a female. Here is a photo of one of the males.

I guess these guys like berries, too, I found out.

Friendly Phoebe

This phoebe at Lake Murray was very friendly. He was catching flies at the edge of the lake and let me get really close to him.