November 2013 counting day

Killer and Dee flying away

Today was my counting day at Lake Murray.  This time of year, counting can be a real chore and take most of the morning to do.  This year, I've counted the most coots that I've ever counted there, 1568, and those were the ones that I actually saw.  There might have been another hundred or two that I didn't see.

I only saw one black-crowned night heron, today:

There were a few green-back herons around, though.

I came across some turkey vultures waiting for a pair of gulls to start eating a nice fish when this pelican came, scooped up the fish, and swallowed it.  Here he is swallowing the fish.  He was the only pelican there.

Lots of nutmeg manikins.  I can recognize them by call now and I've found about four different populations of them around the lake.
 

Finally saw my first northern shoveler today.  Usually, they're the first migrating ducks, but this year, they were late:

Also saw my first American wigeons, though they stayed far away:

A pair of gadwalls.  I think this was the ones that might have been released by Project Wildlife.  The male has red feathers on his wing:

There's quite a few scaup at the lake now and I think I also counted a record number of ruddy ducks:

I saw four killdeer, two of which look like Killer and Dee.  Killer is George and Martha's son hatched in the summer of 2010:

Killer

Dee

Here's a close-up of Killer:

I think this might be Dee, but could be Killer again, but most likely Dee:

I won't go into detail about all the other birds I counted.  There were hundreds of yellow-rumped warblers, but not as much as I expected.  And, very few lesser goldfinches, too.

Louie, the Chinese gander, is swimming around the lake and I saw him way on the other side where Bumblefoot is.  He's herding the ducks around there.  I hope he doesn't hurt them.  I wonder if he's looking for Jill.

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.

Counting Day!

Today is the day I counted the birds at Lake Murray as I have done every month for the last two or three years.  I don't know how much longer I am going to do my monthly counts, but I plan to do at least the next one for the Great Backyard Bird Count in February.

My day started out with the usual birds, but a big lack of mallards.  One of my first neat birds to see was the eared grebe in the photo above.

I also heard the "Mystery Warbler" (Possibly a Virginia's warbler) call for a few seconds lately.

I checked on all the domestic ducks and all were fine, but Bumblefoot's foot infection is really bad.  It must hurt as he doesn't even want to put her foot under her body.  The rough ground probably doesn't help, either.

Here's a close-up of it.  It really is nasty and she doesn't have a lot longer to live if she doesn't get treatment for it soon.  Otherwise, she is in good spirits and has normal energy and appetite.

The call duck mix seems to be all better now and is no longer tucking his tail in.  I don't think he needs a rescue anymore.

Gaddy and his girlfriend.  You can always tell which gadwall is Gaddy because he's always with this female mallard no matter what.  Sure, he likes to stray off an look at other girls and pick fights with the males, but he always stays close to her.

Oreo has managed to get into Cinnamon's inner circle and seems to almost be her new fifth boyfriend.

But, as she and her other boyfriends leave the area, he stays behind near where his friend died, circling around.  Eventually, he followed Cinnamon, but seemed really hesitant to do so.

Later, I saw him across the lake looking at the 10 Pekins over there. I wonder if he was looking for his friend or for a new friend.

Here are the results of today's count:

3	Canada Goose
10	Gadwall
201	Mallard
37	Mallard (Domestic type)
2	Cinnamon Teal
14	Northern Shoveler
354	Lesser Scaup
2	Bufflehead
23	Ruddy Duck
6	Pied-billed Grebe
2	Eared Grebe
1	Western Grebe
15	Western/Clark's Grebe
56	Double-crested Cormorant
3	American White Pelican
1	Great Blue Heron
1	Snowy Egret
1	Green Heron
10	Turkey Vulture
1	Osprey
1	Cooper's Hawk
1	Red-shouldered Hawk
280	American Coot
24	Ring-billed Gull
27	Western Gull
13	California Gull
1	Glaucous-winged Gull
34	Rock Pigeon
43	Mourning Dove
70	Anna's Hummingbird
5	Nuttall's Woodpecker
3	Black Phoebe
2	Cassin's Kingbird
11	American Crow
2	Common Raven
169	Bushtit
2	Marsh Wren
7	Bewick's Wren
1	Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
3	California Gnatcatcher
1	Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1	Hermit Thrush
20	European Starling
1	Orange-crowned Warbler
1	Virginia's Warbler Vocal only. Same bird heard/seen in previous months mentioned in previous eBird reports. Only gave a short, 15 second call one time before disturbed by nearby human activity. Though it is staying around the same general area as before, it has become almost non-vocal over the last few weeks.
6	Common Yellowthroat
330	Yellow-rumped Warbler Conservative count. Every bird counted was individually sighted and/or heard.
1	Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) Similar to Audubon's warbler, except with a white throat.
6	California Towhee
63	Song Sparrow
83	White-crowned Sparrow
30	Red-winged Blackbird
63	Brewer's Blackbird
40	Great-tailed Grackle
134	House Finch
79	Lesser Goldfinch

Shorebird counting with PRBO

Willets

I did the shorebird count with PRBO again this year, second year in a row on the east side of Coronado Island.  Didn't see many shorebirds, though.

Like last year, there was a small flock of shorebirds just outside our study area that we couldn't count.  I think there were 44 marbled godwits, here, by the ferry landing.  Later, they flew over and mixed with a flock of willets just outside another study area, still not able to be counted.

Close up of some of the godwits.

We (another participant and I) did get to count a flock of willets, roosting.  That is before someone came up and scared them a little.

But, they went back to sleep after they moved away.  Later, they mixed with the godwits.

We also saw a couple of spotted sandpipers, including the same one I saw last year.  But, I couldn't get a clear photo of her because she wouldn't let me get too close.  And, there were several ospreys there, too.