Cloudy day. Louie and his ducks

Juvenile Cormorant

First thing I took a photo of was a juvenile cormorant with his whitish neck and belly.  

In the photo below is Buffy.  He's been treated as an outcast lately and gets chased around a lot.

Lesser scaup are getting ready for their spring migration.  

Louie has been acting really strange and swimming around in unusual areas.  Here he is with Big Daddy (AKA: Cinnamon, Paprika) in a weird spot over where the swans used to swim by a big drainage pipe in Padre Bay.  He's just slowly swimming around the edge of the lake making his way around to the other side.  For some reason, he doesn't like crossing over very deep water.

He likes to herd and direct the ducks:

Update on Baby Gull:

I heard from a staff member at the lake that they received an email from Project Wildlife stating that a patient they brought in had died.  The staff member said that they hadn't taken in anything for a long time before Baby Gull and assumed it was the gull.  They did not email me, however, and I am not 100% sure that this was Baby Gull, but it probably was.  The other juvenile western gull is still at the lake begging from his mom.

Killdeer, buffleheads and cormorants

Killer (the killdeer). He was chirping for Digger to come follow him.

Today at Lake Murray, I saw Killer and Digger first. However, later, I did not see them on my return.

The young couple, Digger and Killer

In the ballfields, I saw 10 killdeer. I think they're beginning to come back now that construction has quieted down in that area for now. I saw Shy and her mate, her mom and dad, some unknown killdeer, Secret (by himself in another field), Surprise and Suprise's friend. Shy's mate is very aggressive towards her dad unlike George's sons who were young and inexperienced. It appears that Shy has an experienced male for a mate and he got her by standing up to her dad.

I think this is Secret, all by himself

A new killdeer, I don't know who it is, but he's pretty.

On Del Cerro Point, I saw a large flock of doves and blackbirds scattering as well as several ducks. When I went over there to investigate, I saw this juvenile female Cooper's hawk down in the reeds. She flew up to a tree. I wonder what she was trying to catch down there in those reeds.



I saw a lone female bufflehead near the parking lot. Sorry it's blurry, I didn't have my tripod and she was far away.




And, look at all these cormorants! I think I counted 25 just on these wires. I'm surprised the wires didn't fall down, plus it's windy today.



Ducky is missing!

Ducky, AKA the "lost" duckling, has been missing for at least 5 days. It's possible he's still around and I just haven't seen him. His friend is all by himself, pretty much except for his sister. I think Ducky has just decided to change his routine a little. He hasn't been hanging around the picnic tables as much.

Again, sorry for the blurry photo of Ducky's friend.