Ducky update for August

Here's a ducky update for Lake Murray today.  We have a new dumped duckling (above), who is still fuzzy.  He has a raspy peep, so I think he's a boy.  He left with the other ducks and seemed to be calling for someone, but I didn't see any other domestic duckling associated with him.

I think this might be Stretch and his mama:

Mom wouldn't let the Project Wildlife duckling sit near her son.

Pepper is hanging out with his brother.  The Pekins are picking on him.

Cow is still alive.  She's the only female in that big flock to survive breeding season:

And, Oreo has joined the big group of Pekins:

Tiny dumped duckling

Yesterday, I got a call about a "gosling" that had hatched at the lake that had spent the night in the freezing cold rain and hail the night before next to his dead friend's body.  I knew that none of the geese were tending a nest or even breeding, so I went over to take a look and found this guy:

When I first saw him, I thought he was a Pekin, but he had a weird shape, thick legs, and a weird shaped head that was triangular like a goose.  He was also found hanging out with the geese and the worker who found him was pretty certain he was a gosling.  I took him over in a crate to the geese and though several were curious about him, none seemed to claim him, so I know he wasn't one of their babies.  He was also the wrong color, all yellow.  There are only three all white geese there and two are male and one is a female bonded to a gray male in which both breeds breed gray and yellow goslings.  So, I knew he had been dumped there.

Before I left to go look at him, I sent an email to several people with my cell phone number attached so that they could call me while I still had them.  There's pretty much a no tolerance policy with animals at the apartment where I live, so I couldn't take him home.  I went to a couple of feeds stores and they couldn't provide a heat lamp.  Consider that he was already hypothermic, I didn't want to leave him anywhere that wasn't warm, so I decided to take him to the local wildlife center to see if they can take him.

Well, on the way there, I got a call for someone who would take him in case the wildlife center couldn't (and they couldn't.  The next step was to bring him to the animal shelter).  So, I brought him to her house. She already has several chickens, ducks and a couple of geese and wanted to get some more.   So, she took in the little guy and kept him warm.

It turned out he wasn't a gosling at all, but a jumbo Pekin duckling, probably about one to two weeks old.  He's just old enough where he would begin to be weaned off a heat lamp, but still way too young to be out in under 40 degree wet weather.  So, now he has a home and is going to be one spoiled ducky from what I could see of his new owner's other animals.

Too bad about his friend, though.  If I had seen them before the storm, I could have saved both.

In other news, Oreo was seen trying to hang out with the 4 "babies", which are actually a group of four Pekin drakes that were dropped off last September.  They are actually not babies, but I call them that.  Oreo still misses his friend and even though he follows Cinnamon around, I think he still identifies himself with Pekins (even though he's a Swedish duck).

A few photos, plus a dumped duckling update

Today, I did my monthly bird count at Lake Murray and I counted the lowest number of coots and mallards since I started counting over two years ago.  I know about 20-30 ducks (wood and mallard) are with young somewhere and I know there are two gadwalls.  But, I can only count what I see at that time, so they didn't get counted.  Still, even when I add them, there aren't that many ducks around.

This was the only duckling I saw today.  At first, I thought it was one of the three that I saw a couple days ago, but this is a different mother.  I think this is her first breeding season.  I didn't see this little guy later when I came back to this spot.

I did not see the other moms with their ducklings that I saw on Wednesday, including the rouen duckling.  At first, I thought I spotted that mom without any ducklings, but it turned out that it wasn't her.  It's a good sign not to see her because the ducklings may still be with her.  The mom may have moved them to another area because they are now two weeks old and would be switching from a high protein diet to one with more plant matter.

This wood duck pair was still hanging around near where I saw them a couple days ago.  All the other wood ducks I saw were male.  The only other female there had 8 ducklings the last time I saw her a few weeks ago in early April:

Louie is not giving up on his quest to make Jill his mate.  She seems to be breaking down and not recoiling in horror whenever Louie gets up to sit next to her or follows her around.  However, she still doesn't want to be near him that much and often moves away if he gets too close.  

Update on the two dumped fuzzy ducks:

Some of you may remember me writing about the two fuzzy ducks, about three or four weeks old, that I saved from the lake after they were dumped there.  They didn't have any feathers at all and were taken to Bird Crazy.  Well, Bird Crazy managed to adopt them out earlier this week to someone in a nice neighborhood with a big yard and lots of other birds and chickens.  So, they will be well cared for and possibly spoiled beyond belief.  Thank you Bird Crazy for taking care of the little guys!

Goodbye Waddles:

Waddles, the big Embden goose that was the matriarch of the goose flock there is now considered deceased.  She has been missing too long to have been sitting on a nest.  Though others have said that she had gone missing, before, for several months, I have never noticed her being gone for more than a week or two.  She may have been sitting on a nest earlier in the year, but I doubt she has been sitting on one all this time and not getting up to eat or drink.  She's a very large goose and can't hide for very long, especially alone without any other geese.  She also had a lot of health issues and trouble walking.  My guess is either someone stole her, a coyote got her, or she died of health problems.

Other birds seen today included a few new ones:  Pacific slope flycatcher, Calliope hummingbird, and Cassin's vireo.  There is one other bird call I've been hearing, but can't figure out yet.  It sounds very thrush-like, but I can't pinpoint it.  I am still searching out that call.

Two fuzzy dumped Easter ducklings

Last night, there was a lot of rain.  This morning, I found these two baby Pekins all alone, dumped at the side of the lake.

 Apparently, they had been there since the afternoon before.  They appear to be about 3-4 weeks old, which would put them right in the middle of the Easter season.  Usually, ducklings this age won't survive the night, especially a stormy night.  But, luckily, it was warmer than usual and the predators stayed away.  In the morning, one of the herons was eying the smaller of the two.  Plus, they seemed to be starving.

When I got them home, they were very dirty from the dirt in the carrier I was using.

I gave them a little bath:

They were still dirty, but they seemed to get really tired in the tub, so I took them out and dried them off.

Here is a video I made of them bathing (Yes, I know my tub is disgustingly dirty.  It's not as bad as it looks on video and I cleaned it afterward):






They were later taken to a store called Bird Crazy on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. to be adopted out. Bird Crazy specializes in exotic birds, but they thought they could help these babies. If you are interested in adopting them, look up that store here in San Diego.

Later, when I was returning the carrier, I saw Cinnamon's Twin.  The boys have been rough with her unlike Cinnamon whose feathers, so far, are in good shape.  Cinnamon's Twin also has lost a lot of weight.

"Baby Goose" is all grown up and still hanging around, but seems to have no friends.

And, here is a funny looking gadwall.  I think he might be in the middle of a molt or could be a mallard-gadwall hybrid with genes heavily on the gadwall side:

Junior and Killer Junior, the killdeers were having a lot of fun chasing and yelling at each other.  Shy's mate was really upset about a Cooper's hawk that was trying to attack him, but, then, went for some crows instead.  And, Squeak's eggs have all hatched and all the chicks have been moved to a secure location where people can't get to them.  Shy went with them, leaving her mate all alone.