Snow goose still at Chollas Lake

Went to Chollas Lake to count birds and found that the snow goose was still there.

Here she is:

Chollas Lake has a lot of domestic fowl.  Here's my boy, Arrowhead:

I think this might be Mylee, the gosling from a couple of years ago:

Pretty muscovy girl:

Handsome muscovy boy:

Snow Goose at Chollas Lake

Yesterday, I happened to take a walk at Chollas Lake after work and found this little snow goose among the domestic geese there.

I didn't have my camera at that time, so I went today and he was still there.  He is about the size of a large Pekin duck, but smaller than the domestic geese.  Here is a side view:

Front view:

Three-quarters angle:

A close up shows the black "lips" that are characteristic of snow geese:

Snow geese aren't necessarily rare or endangered, but they are rare at Chollas Lake or any area west of the foothills and mountains.  

If you go to see the snow goose, be ware of this large African gander.  His name is Arrowhead and usually he's not a problem.  For some reason, he gets excited when he sees me.  Today, he seemed upset at me, probably because I haven't been coming to Chollas Lake that much in the last few years.  He ignored me yesterday and today, he demanded my attention and acted like he was going to bite me, but didn't.  Then, he ignored me when I tried to call him towards me later.  

If you encounter him, make sure you say his name and pay lots of attention to him.

Here is a domestic goose about the size of the snow goose.  It is mostly blind in that one eye and the other eye is completely missing.  But, he knows how to work it when he wants you to feed him.  Totally adorable.  He looks like a small embden goose.

I threw in a picture of these two ring-billed gulls because they looked so cool:

Chollas Lake.

A buff duck at Chollas Lake

Today, I wanted to do a little bird counting for the Great Backyard Bird Count, so I went to Chollas Lake and just counted around the small lake for a half an hour.  

Here are some of the domestic drop-offs there:

The next photo is of Guido.  If you call him, he will come up to you.

This runner duck was limping:

Saw a black-crowned night heron:

And, the merlin checking out all the lesser goldfinches and yellow-rumped warblers there:

San Diego Christmas Bird Count

Yesterday, I took part in the annual Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count.  My portion was the southwestern side of Chollas Lake, usually locked to the general public.  It includes the model air plane flying area.

Not many of the birds were co-operative about having their picture taken, especially the horned larks:

Saw many savanna sparrows, too.

 

And, several kestrels:

We could see the snow on Mount Laguna from where we were.

There were also meadowlarks, cedar waxwings, lots of yellow-rumped warblers, northern harrier, gnatcatchers, tons upon tons of Anna's hummingbirds, a merlin, red-tailed hawks,  California towhees, and many other species.  Very disappointed in the severe lack of killdeer (none!).  

At the lake, I saw this cute little female muscovy:

And, Arrowhead!

Update on Jill:

Jill has re-joined the main flock, but is being harassed by all the geese.  Louie is totally in love with her, but attacked her once, probably in an attempt to mate.  Jill resisted and began fighting back.  One of the Canada geese got upset and attacked Louie.  Later, he made sure that Louie couldn't get near Jill.  Louie shadowed her around, cooing and flexing his neck at her, but she kept her distance.  It might be too soon for her and the other geese in the flock are making sure that she's kept at a low rank.  

Someone else also thought that Jack might have been stolen from the lake, too.  They said they saw footprints around where he and Jill hung out.  But, like I said before, there is a lady who looks after them over there and I haven't talked to her about it, yet.

Audubon walk at Chollas Lake

This morning, I went on a San Diego Audubon walk at Chollas lake.

A few ducks thought we might have food:

I don't know if they realized that there is a peregrine falcon big enough to eat them right above.  But, I think the falcon already ate:

Not far away, the pigeons were going nuts.  Someone said that they saw a merlin near here.  They ended up roosting in this tree:

Saw this beautiful, young Cayuga duck. She has only one small white feather.  There was another one like her there, too:

A northern harrier gave us a show.  Unfortunately, the photos weren't clear because my lens is slow and he was flying:

Lots of red tailed hawks seen today, too.