A few photos

4 ballfield killdeer

I took a few photos today, nothing special.  I did see four or five killdeer at the lake.  I couldn't really ID them, but it looked like two males and two females.  I think one was Shy's mate and the others were Shy's mom and Dad.  I'm thinking the smallest killdeer might be Miracle or her sibling.  That would explain why Shy's mate is there, probably to watch over her.

Hurt wing gets attacked:

I wasn't going to check on Cinnamon, but I'm glad I did as I found one of her boyfriends attacking Hurt Wing, the duck with the damaged wing (that was probably hurt in the same way it was being damaged today).  The male was three times bigger than her and she sounded like she was in a lot of pain and tried to get away.  I got them to stop and she was able to get away.  He then attacked another female who could fly away.  A third female wasn't even bothered by him.  

Here she is, not even grateful that I saved her.  She flapped her wings and most of her flight feathers were completely torn. If she could fly before, she can't fly now.  She swam off with her more normal-sized boyfriend.

Here is the perpetrator.  He's usually a pretty nice duck, but today he was a butt-head.

I caught Jill returning from where Louie was this morning.  Of course, she had a chaperon, one of the Canada geese, so I don't know if anything happened.  She seemed to be doing a "swim of shame".  Louie won't follow her across the lake, he seems scared to go over there.  

Louie is acting weird and seemed to be following or herding a bunch of large ducks, mostly Cinnamon's Twin and her boyfriends, into an area where I've never seen geese (but where the swans often went).  The ducks went into the brush and Louie followed, cooing.  

And, finally, here's Bigboi, sleeping in the water with the coots.  I think he knows he blends in very well with the coots.

Jill can fly!

Pollux's mate in the ballfields

Came to the lake and heard Louie and the Canada geese making a ruckus.  I thought that Louie and Picked On were fighting, but then I saw Jill moving away from the area with two Canada geese as chaperons.  I think she came over and is considering Louie as a mate as it is the beginning of the season.  Then, the two Canada geese started flying and so did Jill!  She only got about two feet above the water, but she flew most of the way.  Never thought I would see that.

Here is Louie back on his side of the lake.  He's scared of going to the other side.  Jill stayed on the other side, but stayed in a place where she can easily see or hear Louie.

Louie

Spoonface is on the move with his orange ring, now seen closer to where he usually is, but heading north.

Here is a photo of a friendly female scaup.  Several males and females were close by:

This dove was sitting on the speed limit sign at the lake.  The speed limit is really for people on bikes.  There's been a few accidents there between bikes and pedestrians.  

I opened a new Cafe Press story selling some of my photos on T-shirts, etc.  It's called Just Ducky by Darlene.  

Some old favorites

I thought I would post a few photos of some old favorites at Lake Murray.

Big Daddy

Bigboi

Curly

Here's Spoonface.  Good news, his body feathers look like they've grown back.  His wing feathers may not grow back until the next molt.

The friendly juvenile wigeon

Jill was finding comfort hanging around the big embden, who might be a female, but I'm not sure.  His/her mate tries to chase off Jill, but she mostly ignores him or just moves away a little.  She seems to be in a much better mood and is beginning to fit into the group.

The Canada goose is not letting Louie get near her.  Louie always keeps his eye on her and calls to her, too.  She sometimes answers back.  Whenever Louie gets vocal, the Canada goose tries to drown him out, but he's no match for the Chinese gander.

I also got a photo of the California thrasher that lives near the ballfield.  I think I saw a sage thrasher, too, but couldn't get a photo of it because it was blocked by branches.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Duckies!

Peek-a-boo!

Happy Thanksgiving from all the duckies at the lake I saw today!  It sure was a busy place despite being closed.

Bossy Duck

Bossy's older look-a-like

The dumped ducks in a different area of the lake than usual.

Gadwall; they were giving me a hard time and wouldn't let me take their picture.

Louie

Pepper was actually out trying to compete for mates.  He even tried to do honk-snorts, but needs more practice.

This might be either Pepper's brother (the gray duckling) or his cousin:

And, three of the ducks project wildlife dropped off last summer.

Bigboi

And Curly!