Duckling News and Bad News

Well, I have some very bad news about some of the Lake Murray favorites. The bad news is that the coyotes have been extremely active in the area around the fishing pier and have killed several domestic birds and perhaps a wild one or hybrid. But, before I give you more details about that, I would like to say that this has been a very good duckling season. So I will give you the duckling news first, then the bad news about who is gone.

First, I put together a slideshow. Below the slideshow, I will give you an update on some of the individuals in the video.  Here is the slideshow:

This photo was taken today. Two moms had a single duckling in the area. However, I think the mama to this little one has disappeared. This female is the mother of the other duckling who has also disappeared. She is trying to adopt the one without a mom, but he is making it difficult to her. His future does not look good unless he lets her get close to him.

These are the two ducklings which used to go across the lake in deep water at least two or three times a day. They are nearly independent and their mama can't keep up with them. They've wandered off on their own many times.

This is "Little Guy." His mama was raising him near the parking lot. However, this particular mama duck loves to take her ducklings to an inaccessible area around the time they are a month old. Little Guy is about two weeks old here. Last I saw him, he was about 4-5 weeks old and getting very big and feathering fast. I wouldn't be surprised if he was one of the many young ducks whom I've seen hanging out together lately. I don't think I could recognize him now.

This is Leuci, a Leucistic mallard. She's at least seven or eight years old. This is her with her last duckling out of a brood of about six ducklings. This little guy lived a few days longer than this photo, but didn't make it.

These two ducklings and the one in the photo below this one have a strange story. The two mamas look almost exactly alike. At one time, all three of the ducklings were together. There were two older ducklings and an adopted younger duckling. Then, when the bigger ducklings turned about two weeks old, the family split in two. One older one and a much younger one went with one mom and another older one went with the other mom. When the two moms get together, the three ducklings mix and match and are fine. However, the mom with two does not accept the other one, so when the families depart, the one duckling goes with one mom and the others go with the other mom.

Here is a new duck someone dumped at the lake. She has a hybrid mallard boyfriend already and is very shy. She goes way off to the far end of the lake and back to the docks everyday. I'm really surprised she's still alive because she is bright as day and I'm sure the coyotes see her at night.

OK, now for the bad news.

Remember the two new ducks I mentioned in my last post? Well, I don't even think it was a week after they arrived that the Pekin disappeared. The brown khaki duck went off with Blue for a while, then started hanging around Runner Duck and his buff friend. She was fine for about a month, then she, too, disappeared. I'm really hoping that their owners had a change of heart and came back to get them. I haven't seen any evidence of them being eaten, but I don't always see that when it happens.

Miss Grey reappeared and I was really happy. She was fine for at least a week or two, then disappeared again. Today, I found a large pile of feathers that looked exactly like hers. Since she has disappeared for long periods before, I'm hoping that the feathers were not from her and she will show up again.

Eight-year-old Snowie may have also been a victim of the coyotes, too. I saw some speculum feathers and some body and wing feathers that look a lot like her special feather patterns. Plus, her mate, Snowy has been acting very strange and her son seems traumatized. I did not find her on her nest.

Warning, grizzly details in this paragraph: However, someone said they found a head of a "regular mallard" near where I found the feathers, so it might not be hers. They said it was sliced clean off, which makes me wonder if humans are involved, though I have heard that can also happen naturally.

As you can see from this photo, her head doesn't look like a "regular mallard."

Another duck that's missing is the one that nesting near Peaches a few years ago. She was a Project Wildlife duck from a few years ago and hung out in that area. Today I found four duck eggs with holes in them. I suspect that they belonged to the owner of the feathers. Snowie had two eggs in her nest which were abandoned and disappeared a long time ago and these new eggs were still fresh.

Also, I am worried about this white goose. He hangs out with the grey goose and they have been at the lake a very long time. I only saw the grey goose today. This is extremely unusual as they are always together. They're both males, so no one is nesting with this pair. Here's a picture of them in 2012.

Miss Angel has also not been seen for over two weeks, but was not healthy the last time I saw her. Her mates, Little Guy and Big Guy, have also not been seen which makes me think she is hiding somewhere with them.

Domestic duck update and a gull with a fish

Yet another female domestic duck has gone missing.  This time, it was a healthy female Pekin.  When she first started mating, she was very scared and always kept her head way up over the water.  But, she relaxed a little bit as time went on, but still kept her head up above the water.  I guess it wasn't good enough.  Both she and one of the Swedish ducks are missing from that big flock.  I hope they're together on some nest or something.   Another female duck has been burying herself in thickets and doing other things to get the males to stop mating with her.  She's really beat up, but still alive. A single male tries to protect her, but often can't.

Across the lake, Bumblefoot is still going strong, but is very lonely if she doesn't have any Pekin ducks near her.  The new Pekin ducks have moved nearby and seem curious about her, but prefer people and are extremely hungry.  I was hoping that Bumblefoot would show them around, but they haven't made friends with her, yet.  Bitey is also doing well and I think his hormones are calming down a little.  All other domestic ducks are doing well except I haven't seen Cinnamon's Twin's Twin, her mate and "Spot", the Welsh Harlequin, since that incident last Sunday when the drakes were ganging up on her.  They all hang out together, so they might just be away from the area.

There are now three baby herons in the nest and I think the two bigger ones are trying to push the smallest one out, but he's very strong for a little guy, and a fighter.  Here's the biggest one, the other two sank down in the nest.

And, I watched this western gull with a prized fish.  Gulls love fish more than anything else in the world, it seems.  Here he is trying to position the fish:

"I got a fish!"

Down the hatch!

Nope, I guess not.

Needs more washing:

And, finally, a photo of Smudge who lets me get really close to her as does her mate.  I didn't even see her mate even though I passed within about ten feet of him.

Still no ducklings, yet.  Neo's mom is traditionally the first one to have ducklings at this lake, usually around the 20th, but I don't think I've seen her this year (I may have seen her a month ago, but I'm not sure).  The other mother who had the ducklings on April 10th last year has not been seen in the last week and will probably not be having them as early as she did last year.

Least Terns and more missing ducks

All last week, I went out and helped San Diego Audubon get ready for least tern nesting season.  The terns will be arriving soon!  I helped set up decoys, helped with grid-ding, and helped with pulling more weeds. We mostly worked on Fiesta Island with a little bit of work at Mariner's Point.

The picture below is of decoys being counted and getting ready to be placed.  It sorta looks like a tern massacre, lol.

This is the famous Stony Point hummingbird who likes to sit near the gate at the Stony Point nesting area:

Here is one of the views from Stony Point:

Lots and lots of horned larks on Fiesta Island:

And, the resident killdeer where there.  Here's one from Mariner's Point:

Here's one from North Fiesta Island where they had a nest by the end of the week.  This is dad being very watchful.

This is mom on her nest.  I didn't want to set a bad example and get too close to the nest to see exactly how many eggs she had (I saw at least two from a distance).  I really don't need to know if I'm not monitoring their nest, anyway.

I think they had at least one chick survive to adulthood, last year, and I think he was still hanging around.

I have a lens on Squidoo about helping the California least terns.  Click on the link to see it.

At Lake Murray, I noticed Big Daddy acting sick and lethargic.  It could just be because he's molting.  He and Cinnamon's old boyfriend were ganging up on Cinnamon's Twin's Twin. (Mostly it was the other ducks, not him that was doing it because he was acting sick).  When I tried to stop them from seriously hurting her, a lady fishing with her kids berated me for interfering.  Last year, I saw a domestic duck literally get "bred to death" while on land, so I didn't want it to happen to Cinnamon's Twin's Twin.

Also, I think I will have to say goodbye to Cow, the magpie duck dropped off last year with the big flock of black and white ducks.  She was a favorite of the males and also one of the smallest.  I suspect she drowned just like Cinnamon did.  She was the only one I named from that group.  Like Cinnamon, I really hope she's just sitting on a nest somewhere and will be seen, soon.

Shame on these people who dump these ducks.

RIP Duckies

RIP Bumblefoot's mate

This is the time of year that can be tough because that's when you lose your favorite friends.  Always happens, every year about this time.  Usually, I start to feel good about this time of year because I feel that the worse is over with the ducks surviving the long, dark coyote nights of winter.  And, breeding season is winding down, so I feel good about the females that survive this time.  I thought we were beginning to head into the good time of year of ducklings and healthy ducks.  But, nope, that's when the favorites start to die or disappear.

I found out that it was Bumblefoot's mate that was the source of all the feathers under the osprey nest at Lake Murray.  Apparently, he died at about the same time that Cinnamon disappeared.  His body was found near where he and Bumblefoot like to lay and wait for people to feed them.  Bumblefoot, who can barely walk sometimes, is OK and seems to be very lonely.  She is looking for male companionship with the mallards who don't find her attractive.  The other male Pekin that used to hang out with them has deserted the area.

Bumblefoot alone.

Bumblefoot does not want to come near me anymore and does not respond to her name.  Her mate was so friendly and often brought her over to me when I called.  But, she is cold to me now.

I also found out that when Cinnamon was last seen, she had a profound limp for an unknown reason.  It could have been a fishing line injury, but I'm not sure.  It looks like she was last seen the day she disappeared last week.  When I last saw her, she was healthy and vibrant.  Now, I suspect she may have been drowned by her mates.  But, I hope she's maybe on a nest or perhaps taken to a rescue, though I haven't heard any reports of anyone rescuing her.

Cinnamon about 10 days before she disappeared.

Gaddy and his mate are also missing, but I suspect they just moved to a different area and she could be on a nest.  Good news about Neo:  His wing seems to be much better and I think he will be flying, soon.  He is still hanging out with Indy and Indy's brother who are always play-fighting.  Nothing serious, just a little wrestling between boys.

In killdeer news, I still haven't seen Junior.  He generally arrives around mid-April, though last year he arrived in early March with his mate arriving in mid-April.  I'm hoping he's OK.

I think this might be his ultra-friendly son.

Big Stretch!

Smudge is so cute and friendly:

Smudge's young mate:

Squeak, Smudge's mother, was seen in the ballfields with Pollux, her mate.  They were harassing another male in the fields.  I think that other male might be Smudge's brother who should be off on his own getting his own mate.  It wasn't serious, but I think Pollux is annoyed by his presence.
 

We say goodbye to a couple ducks

Today, we say goodbye to Curly, the curly billed duck.  Though I haven't seen him dead, it is very unusual for him to be missing so long.  I think the last time I saw him was in December or January.  Someone else said they saw him in February and someone else in March.  But, for me, it's very unusual for me not to see him in more than a month.  So, I presume he has passed on from old age.  He was a very healthy and vibrant duck until the end.

Curly's last photo taken on December 22nd, 2011

The other duck was a female mallard that I found the vultures eating.  The bill and head markings as well as the darker coloring of her feathers indicate that she might be Caramel or her mother.  Caramel was seen doing well a few days ago and the body was found in an area where she hasn't frequented in almost a year.  So, I won't be able to make a good determination of who it is until all the hens return from their nests.  

Here is a photo of Caramel's sister, who was in a bad mood today.  Notice her fanned tail.

This next photo was taken after he opened her mouth in threat, opened it and closed it a few times and let out a big loud quack before looking at me in a cute way.  I think a male walked too close to her.  She then went off to see if someone else would feed her.

I believe this next picture is of Spoonface's sister, the real bossy duck.  She was being really friendly today.

I think this is the formerly rescued Peep, her mate.

This is one of the trio where the female duck died a couple weeks ago:

Here is the other survivor:

When I went this morning to look at the killdeers in the ballfield, Shy and her mate were going absolutely nuts.  I looked everywhere for a nest and didn't find one.  I got distracted by some scary looking large dogs, one of them a large rottweiler trying to climb a fence, in a yard bordering the park, so I didn't take any photos of them.  The dogs were set off by all their screaming.  I forgot that I had to talk to the killdeer to make them feel more comfortable, but I was so distracted, plus I was listening for the one chick I think they're caring for whom I think is nearby.  If you want to make friends with killdeer (or at least calm them a little), you have to talk to them.  

Here is a photo of Shy I took a couple days earlier:

And her mate, AKA "Tiny's Twin" because he looks a lot like Tiny, George's son.

Across the lake, many other killdeer were out flying around doing territorial call.  Little Killer Jr. was being escorted around by Junior who didn't like sharing his territory with him.  

Here is the much bigger Junior: