Bossy duck tries to keep a girlfriend.

I guess Bossy was trying to get a certain female to be his mate when she flew over to where several other males were resting.  She then began to do a little ritual which I think was her way to get the males to either chase her or fight each other. She and Bossy got separated, at first.

Bossy, strutting his stuff

 Then, he went up to her and protected her from the other males.  But, alas, I don't think the girl has made up her mind and flew off with Bossy and one other male with her.  Maybe, this year, there will be little Bossys swimming around.

I think the female might be Bluebill,, one of the breeding females from last year.

I found Squeak with Pollux in one of the ballfields.  Immediately she recognized me and ran up to me before laying down.  Then, later, I walked around the entire field and she would follow me the entire time.  When I stopped, she would run up to me and lay down.  Finally, she ran up to me and did a semi-broken wing act.  But, I found no nests anywhere and the act was half-hearted.  I think she's going broody, but not breeding, yet.

Here she is laying down in the grass, watching.

Her mate, Pollux, could care less about everything except he didn't want her to get too far away.


In another field, I think this might be Little Miracle, still mate-less:

This gull seemed to be fairly interested in her, but not overly much.  I think she didn't like the gull.

Great Backyard Bird Count Day One

Today was the first day of the four day "Great Back Yard Bird Count".  This year, people are counting birds all over the world, not just here.  Because I work on weekends, I did two counts.  The first one was at Lake Murray where I counted 55 species (but only 54 are being "counted" because one of my sightings was a barn swallow that is out of season in this area).

To my surprise, I found the little call duck alive this morning!  He was near his usual area and hanging out with another male mallard.  I thought he had been caught by a coyote, so I was really surprised.

I think this *might* be Zippy, one of the last ducklings to hatch and survive last year.  She looks a lot like her mother in the face, but her body shape is a little smaller and rounder.

And, look who I saw.  It's Bossy!  His ring is back around his neck again.  You can see where he had it around his head before.  He's so healthy otherwise.  Hopefully he will continue not to have any problems with that ring.

I think Bossy likes Zippy.  She seemed a little bit indifferent to him.  She's still young.

Then, I went over to Fiesta Island and counted birds there for almost an hour.  There were some marbled godwits and willets there.  That willet is excited about that seaweed and wouldn't share.

Another willet somewhere else.  He was hanging around a flock of gulls and walking up to a couple in a car who was stopped near a trash can.  That was strange.  I think he was just curious about the people in the car.

Another marbled godwit:

I am not sure, but I think this might be a herring gull getting ready to molt into his third year.  I thought it was a juvenile western gull, but the colors are not right.

Brant, coots and buffleheads:

This brant came up when I called.  I think he/she was curious about me.

Bossy Reappears

Bossy duck was seen this morning.  I am sure it was him because I saw what looked like a ring around the back of his head.  However, the ring looks very faded and has lost most of its orange color.

Here he is with a friend:

Also with Bossy was a redhead duck.  Redheads live here all year, but rarely breed.  I saw this girl a couple of weeks ago, but then she disappeared.

This young duck might be one of Fish Food Mama's first brood this year:

And, this is the duckling whom I think might be one of the original 8 from the "Snowies", a very faithful pair of ducks.  I think the parents might be Appleyard or Snowy Mallard mixes.  I am positive that this is one of their offspring, but they may have had two others survive as well.  He is 9 weeks old and, already, very large.

And, here is Yellowcheeks with Zippy and Skippy, now about 6 weeks old.  Skippy is sound asleep in this photo.  That's a baby coot on the right side.

Their possible sibling, the "Hot Duckling" is said to also be doing very well, though I did see her today.  I think I figured out how she got over there.  Ducklingnapper has been seen in that area several times since the duckling went missing.   Ducklingnapper probably stole her, but there was another mother with her own ducklings there around the same time.  So, the stolen duckling was, again, stolen by the other mother who, eventually, lost her own ducklings.  

And, I saw this young killdeer all by him/herself.  I thought it was a girl a while back, but now I'm thinking it might be a boy.  Still a very quiet little guy.

Today, I did not see Pepper, the broken winged duck that used to be the black duckling from last year.  This is the first time he's gone missing since last December or January.  I worry about him because of his broken wing.  His grandma, Fish Food Mama (and, now that I think about it, she might actually be his mother) is also gone and so is Bigboi.  I hope they're all together somewhere safe.  Last year, Pepper disappeared at this time of year, but back then he was still a duckling, sorta.  Bigboi is one of Fish Food Mama's favorite males.

Then there were two, now there is one. . .

The one on the bottom disappeared within the next hour

Sad news about the three ducklings I saw yesterday.  When I first arrived, there were only two, the little rouen duckling was gone.  An hour later, there was only one.  I suspect that this will be the last time I will ever see him.

Meanwhile, the five ducklings are doing well and while they were spotted on one side of the lake, they went back to their regular spot later on.  I have a feeling that the mom with the young ducklings went to follow her, but ran into the gulls who got her ducklings.

Indy and his big brother

I think this is Sweetie

I was taking pictures of another duck when I heard ducklings peeping.  When I turned around, the whole group ran up to me.  But, when the found out that I had no food, quickly went back into the water.

I found this new six duckling family today, but because there was a hyper human family with a dog feeding the other ducks nearby, the mom took them across the lake before I could see who the mother was.  I'm hoping it's Peaches, Butterscotch, or the Bossy mama.  I think it might be Butterscotch.

Bossy (Spoonface) was in a weird spot.  Here he is amongst the five ducklings:

Yep, his ring is still around his head, I hope it comes off soon and is not choking him:

This poor wood duck female is completely bald.  Her boyfriend is Doodle's Bully.  Apparently he's rough on the girls, too.  She seems fine otherwise.  Looks worse than it is.

The missing chick has been found!  He is hanging out with his mom, Squeak:

Problem is that one of Squeak's former suitors is harassing her and attacking the little chick.  This killdeer is very large and can easily kill or hurt the smaller baby.  I even saw him take a hit to the little guy, when the baby tried to fly away, as well as to Shy who seems to be helping with caring for him.  Here he is on a rock:

He does nest scrapes and courtship displays despite having no audience.  And, he's relatively unafraid of me, too.  Something's not right with him.  I hope he hasn't hurt Pollux.

If you go over to where he's scraping, you can see several nest holes.

Neo was also seen today, but I couldn't get a photo of him.  He was being attacked by one of the coot parents.  He looks good, though.  Has all his feathers now except the primaries.  Also, the Squeak and Pollux's daughters were also seen.  I think I will call the other daughter Peanut.

Foggy ducklings and a problem for Spoonface

Today was a very foggy day and I went early to go check my nests.  The killdeer eggs are still around and should be hatching sometime in the next week.

I found this poor girl with two large males with her.  I think this is one of the "Friendly ducklings" whom Spoonface (Bossy) used to hang around with.

Speaking of Spoonface (Bossy), I think this is him, not only does he not have his orange ring around his neck, he can fly now!  However, he went over and attacked the female while on the concrete, possibly harming her.  Hopefully she is OK and he didn't crush any forming eggs inside her.  However, it appears that Spoonface injured himself and seemed not to be able to retract his penis.  He was able to retract it, but it came back out.  Plus, his sperm fell on the concrete as well.  If he can't retract his penis, it will get infected and he will die.  Always something with him!  Here he is before the attack:

Now to the foggy ducklings.  This is the same female who lost her entire brood last year.  5 were stolen by "Ducklingnapper" (who was not seen today) and the rest died.  These ducklings were hatched almost to the day as her brood last year.  This year, though, she is more attentive and she warns them to stay away from people.  Unfortunately, she has a little rouen baby that is not doing well.  Plus, the baby has fishing line wrapped a little around the top of his head.

The little rouen with the fishing line

Junior is happy

Junior the killdeer is happy because his mate is with him now.

Junior doing a nest scrape

Junior's mate

I think the next photo is of George III who was hanging out with another female whom, I think, was George's mate, Martha.  He seemed really happy to have her around.  I couldn't get a decent photo of her.

Baby Bob is molting and you can see her spots starting to come through.

Here she is from the back:

This black-crowned night heron is in the middle of a molt, too.

I think the gull on the right is the sick gull from a few weeks ago.  Seems a bit better now.

Bossy duck is doing well, but the ring seems to be getting tighter on him.  I think he's grown a little.

Quacker was being really friendly, but she kept running around in the parking lot getting chased by kids and almost getting hit by cars.  She was just hungry and looking for a handout..

Big Mama Cooper's hawk, dead?

As I drove towards the lake entrance, I saw a dead bird on the road, perhaps two.  I thought it might be Big Mama Cooper, but didn't think it had any sign of barring on its feathers, so I wasn't sure.  The road was busy, so I couldn't get out and check.  I didn't hear or see Big Mama at all today and I almost always, at least, hear her as she's got a nest in George's territory and is always calling for her mate.  When I left, I drove by slower and looked and I could see lots of barring on the wings and what looked like a long (folded) tail and a reddish-tan lower belly.  I couldn't see the chest.  Apparently, the bird had flew head-on into a passing car while chasing what I think was a dove or pigeon whom I think was the other bird (it was gone when I passed by the second time).  I think the dead bird might be her as I've seen her fly low across this road at this spot while chasing birds.  I will keep an eye out for her to see if she is really gone or not.  It could have been the local red-shouldered hawk as well, whom I also didn't see at all today.