A new killdeer nest

Junior

Well, I thought Junior already had chicks, but, no.  I finally found his nest and it was right by where everyone walks.  No wonder why they were getting so excited when I walked that way.

Junior's mate warns me not to step on the nest (which, at that time, I couldn't see):

Here is the nest.  I'm not going to divulge its location, but, fortunately, I can observe it without having to get too close to it.

When I left, both Junior and his mate made extra sure that I was really leaving and followed me:

Squeak and Pollux were seen with their two, almost grown, chicks.  But, I think Squeak quickly left, possibly to attend the third chick in another location.

Everyone's having babies.  Here are the two heron babies.  I don't know where there parents are.  I think they're going to fledge within the next week or two:

The male and female osprey are in the nest, but the male won't share the fish he caught.

The five ducklings are still five, but one I think one might not be feeling very well.  Also, one duckling was being extremely disobedient and got a verbal thrashing from mom.  They are getting pretty good feathers now.  I did not see them later.  

Peep, peep, peep, peep!

I think this is Indy:

Neo is going through a big growth spurt.  When I first saw him, I thought he was a small female adult duck:

Unfortunately, my camera battery died, so I couldn't get the comparison shot of the two older ducklings that are feathered out about the same amount.   I also didn't see the mom of one or the mom of two today, either.

Hatchling coot with parent:

Feeding the baby algae:

 I still haven't found out what happened to the male gadwall, but I think he might have been the coyote victim as most of the other ducks have been accounted for.  However, his favorite female is also missing, so he may have just flown off.  Another duck that is missing is Quacker, the flying Cayuga duck.

Down to 5 ducklings

Sadly, there were only 5 of the original 10 ducklings left when I came this morning.  The four very healthy ones and the "special" one.  Mom was not doing a great job keeping them together, either.  Also, this is NOT Caramel, as I had previously thought.  Caramel showed up with her "naked" male this morning.  I think this might be one of the Flycatcher females.  Caramel would have never lost 5 ducklings in 3 days, but it has been cold lately.

Someone, unfortunately, put a huge pile of food right down where the mom and ducklings were feeding.  As a result, a lot of gulls, mostly ring-billed and California gulls, gathered around.  I felt that I had to stand by and protect the ducklings for a little while until the gulls dissipated or the mother took them somewhere else.

One of the ring-billed gulls grabbed one of the ducklings, but I yelled and the duckling got away.  I think one of these two were one of the ones that got grabbed.  I hope it's OK.  I think these are the two that were always getting too far away from mom.  Many times, they walked right up to me.

I watched as they left the area and went to another spot where there were no gulls, but there was a heron there.  I lost track of them when I went to talk to someone about them and what I was doing (someone I had talked to before and thought was a friend) and got distracted when the man got into a rant about how I can't consider myself a conservationist because I am a meat eater.  He didn't like that I was so concerned about one duckling, but not concerned about eating a steak (I don't eat steak but, whatever, he and his friends wouldn't let me get a word in and one called me crazy).  So, I left, hoping, at least, some of them will be OK.  

I also saw some other birds.  Here's a common gallinule:

Clark's grebe:

I saw this baby hummingbird twice on two sides of the lake.  He was peeping away for mama:

Unfortunate news about Pollux and Squeak's nest.  They are back to 3 eggs.  What's weird is there is absolutely no sign of what happened to the missing egg.  I saw no eggshells or anything.  Pollux and Squeak were more agitated than usual, too.  I wonder if the egg hatched and they're agitated because the rest of them are about to hatch.  Maybe that one egg was thrown out of the nest because, compared to the other eggs, it wasn't the right temperature, weight, etc.  I just hope whatever egg it was, it was the newest one and not one of the other ones.

Cinnamon and her entourage ran up to me as soon as I walked up.  The male in front of me is always eager to see if I have any treats and calls to me as soon as he sees me.

And, finally, Doodle's Placekeeper and other male were keeping each other company.

Eggs and killdeer

This male killdeer, possibly one of George's sons from last year, seems upset or excited that Miracle is in his spot. 

He's taken over a spot in Junior's territory.  You can see Miracle in the background.

I think this is his (and Squeak's) sister:

Killer Jr. and Miracle went back across the lake.  Here is Killer Jr. He got fishing line in his mouth, but got it out:

Miracle likes to stay near the reeds:

Meanwhile, I think these are Squeak's and Pollux's eggs.  I'm not going to mention where they are except that there is a fence nearby.

This next picture is of an odd sparrow.  It was hanging out with the white-crowned sparrow, but I think it's a chipping sparrow with very light markings.  It's dark bill, notched tail, and darker legs rule out white-chinned and black-chinned sparrow.  You can barely see the face markings:

The osprey are active on their nests.  One of them just brought a really long, wet rope to add to it.  I hope things don't dangle out any longer or the nest will be electrocuted by the high-voltage wires.  Also, I hope they don't eat any of the ducklings soon to hatch.

I thought this male great egret was beautiful!  I originally thought it was a snowy egret, but it's not:

Sorry this next photo is fuzzy.  It's Caramel sitting on her nest in a secret area.  The only thing is that if a predator were to find her, she would be trapped as there was only one way in or out of this spot:

The ring necked duck is still here along with a few lesser scaups:

Also seen today, Fred the yellowlegs and Bob2 the spotted sandpiper.  Junior the killdeer was seen, too.