A new Pekin duck at the lake

It looks like we have a new Pekin duck at Lake Murray.  He's all by himself as the other Pekins haven't allowed him to be near them.  He is not friendly with people at all.

Here he is hanging with the scaups and mallards:

This scaup was hoping for a handout so that she can fatten up a bit before flying north.

Dougie found a mallard friend:

But, he didn't like this mallard, so he chased him away.  I don't know why he liked the one mallard and not the other.  But, I guess everyone has their preferences for friends and allies.

There were two fat killdeer in the Patriot field.  I think they're both girls.  One looks like she just molted her juvenile feathers.  So, I'm thinking, possibly, mother and daughter.

And, finally, a couple photos of a bushtit.

I love these cute little birdies:

Duck update with new dumped duck and baby blue duck

There's a new dumped Pekin duck at Lake Murray who is hanging out near the picnic tables and the Kiowa Drive parking lot.  He was hiding in a thick brush.  I tried to get him out of there and into the water, but he seemed afraid of the water and, eventually, went back into the bush.  He seemed to feel secure there and chatted and bobbed his head at me from there.  I think he might have been in a cage or pen at one time and he feels the bush is secure like a cage is.

Baby Blue is still alive and is very lonely and scared of people.  I think people are being mean to him.

He tries, desperately, to make duck friends, but none of the other ducks want him around because he's still a peeping duckling, though his voice is changing
.

The Indian runner duckling has doubled in size and is huge now!

I saw this very light colored young  mallard that might be part Saxony.  I have no idea where she came from, but she might have been released by a rescue.  Or, could it be one of Big Daddy's daughters?  Or, maybe it's "Hot Duckling" from last year (who was fairly yellow as a baby).

A young male duck, I think it's Fish Food Mama's boy:

This is one of the two boy ducks that were hatched in July.  I didn't get a good photo of the other one:

And, here's one of the lake's oldest mama ducks:

Counting day!

It's counting day at Lake Murray again.  Here are some photos to start you off.  We have killdeer activity, I think Killer and Dee may have returned, but I am not sure.  Everyone is looking for a mate except the adults.

In these next photos, I think one of the killdeers is Pollux, one is an unknown male, and one might be Smudge or Peanut.

The male on the top of the rock got excited and tried to do a nest scrape when the killdeer on the lower rock turned around.

I think that is Pollux threatening the strange killdeer.

Miracle and Little Miracle where not far away, waiting for the males to tell them to come back.  Here is Little Miracle.

And, I think this is Miracle, or the other way around.  They look a lot alike.

This is Smudge:

These are juveniles, looks like a male and a female.  Could be Peanut and her brother, or could be two new killdeer, most likely siblings:

I am not sure who this is, but it might be Killer Junior.  However, he looks a lot like Surprise whom I haven't seen in a long time.

Plenty of white-crowned sparrows now and yellow-rumped warblers.

The dumped ducks haven't lost any more from their group in the last couple of days.  They seem to be getting less afraid of everything.

They even came on shore to see if they could get a treat.

Here is one of the crested ones.  All three of the crested ones have lost a lot of feathers in their crest since they arrived.

This duck looks a lot more like Indy than the other one last week. He even has little scars on the same leg that Indy had the hooks attached to.  One of his feet had a blister or scar where one of the hooks was. So, this is most likely Indy and not the other one.  He seemed very tired today.

Indy's siblings were hanging out in their old area.  I think the one in front is Sweetie and the other is one of Indy's brother.  Indy's other brother was just out of the photo:

Also, I saw "Puffy Head" today.  he was back with Donald and Buffy2 in their usual spot.

Here's how the count went:

Species	Count
Canada Goose	3
Gadwall	2
American Wigeon	9
Mallard	139
Mallard (Domestic type)	47
Ruddy Duck	7
California Quail	20
Pied-billed Grebe	6
Western Grebe	8
Double-crested Cormorant	8
Green Heron	4
Turkey Vulture	3
Osprey	1
Cooper's Hawk	1
Red-shouldered Hawk	1
Sora	1
American Coot	1005
Killdeer	14
Western Gull	25
California Gull	5
Forster's Tern	3
Rock Pigeon	72
Mourning Dove	20
Anna's Hummingbird	68
Belted Kingfisher	3
Nuttall's Woodpecker	6
Black Phoebe	9
Cassin's Kingbird	5
American Crow	8
Bushtit	84
Bewick's Wren	1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	2
California Gnatcatcher	2
European Starling	2
Common Yellowthroat	6
Yellow-rumped Warbler	27
California Towhee	8
Song Sparrow	17
White-crowned Sparrow	52
Red-winged Blackbird	31
Western Meadowlark	1
Brewer's Blackbird	3
Great-tailed Grackle	65
House Finch	115
Lesser Goldfinch	50
Nutmeg Mannikin	10