RIP Ducky Ducky and Fred comes to visit

You may remember that we tried to rescue Ducky Ducky about 6 weeks ago because she was so beat up, but she wouldn't be caught.  She did end up getting better and I thought she would be around for another year.  But, while foraging this morning, she got her head stuck in some rocks and drowned.  I'm guessing it happened while it was still dark.

Fred the yellowlegs came to visit today.  He was being really friendly, too.  But, when he saw no killdeer, he moved on.

Speaking of birds, the grackles are really looking uuuuuglllly!

A couple of days ago, I thought Oreo had died from the heat.  But, he showed up today with two other ducks whom I haven't seen in a long time.  Oreo has been at the lake since April of 2011.

Troublemaker is still around and has his wings.  But, his condition is pretty icky looking.  I don't think he's every going to look normal.

Here's some beautiful gadwalls, whose numbers have increased.  I think the first one is Gaddy, but the other ones of another male that Gaddy was keeping an eye on

I threw in this photo of the Canada geese family flying around.

In other news, one of the mallard drakes is hobbled by fishing line.  I saw Neo nearby and I think the hobbled duck might be Indy or his brother.  I don't really think it's Indy, though.  Nothing life threatening, but it does restrict his movements.  We might be able to catch him eventually.

All other ducks have made it past the heat wave with no issues.  

RIP Louie the gander

Louie the gander was missing last Friday, but I saw a "white blob" swimming across the lake and thought that it might be him (or a pelican), so I decided not to be concerned.  I looked everywhere very carefully and saw no sign of him or that anything happened to him.  On Wednesday, he was perfectly fine and looked like he was beginning to fit back into the group after being ostracized after Jill's death.

Louie and Jill last March

Louie was very healthy, but wasn't eating a whole lot.  Nonetheless, he had good energy and muscle tone and I did see him eating some, so I didn't worry about him.  But, he was forced to stay away from the main group of geese, so he most likely slept alone.  This morning, I found a lot of white feathers near the reeds close to where they sleep.  The feathers went all around the reeds from back to front.  It looked more than just regular molting feathers that blow around sometimes.  I'm thinking Louie might have died last Wednesday or Thursday and maybe the raccoon found him while scavenging between Friday and today.  

I'm still holding out some hope that he's just hiding somewhere, but this is really unusual for there to be no sign of him for this long.  Even when he looked for Jill, I would always find him somewhere.  Louie was a very old gander who might have been more than 20 years old.

In other duck news, someone told me they found the headless body of a black and white duck in the trash, but I saw no sign of it.  This duck was the only duck missing at that time, but he was found today.  All the other domestic ducks are also fine.  There are two domestics that I rarely see that I can't verify that they're OK, but they live far across the lake. 

All the ducks are in breeding mode and doing honk-whistles.  Here's several male gadwalls chasing a female:

One in the mid-ground of the photo is doing a honk-whistle:

Baby Blue was also doing honk-whistles.  I also heard a lot of "rejection quacks" from females.

And, Rubberband and her brothers keep plugging along.  I don't know what happened to their mom, Eileen.  Last time I saw her, she seemed to be breaking away from them and going off with a male duck.

I also got a few killdeer photos:


I think this is George's skinny 2013 daughter:

And, I think this might be Little Miracle, though her head markings look a lot like Firecracker.  She was very friendly:

Before the rain

While today we have rain, yesterday was mostly cloudy.  But, some sun did come through and made Lake Murray look really still and pretty.

There are three white pelicans there now.  Here are two of them:

This young ring-bill looks very pretty with her chevrons:

Look at me!  I'm a pretty gull!

I found the horned grebe when the light was low.  I didn't see the hooded merganser, but someone came along later and said he saw her:

Lots more gadwalls around now:

I didn't see Baby Blue when I first arrived.  But, later, I saw him with Pepper.  I had to disturb both of them because I wanted Blue to stand so I can check his crop.  I'm still thinking that he's pigging out on bread across the lake early in the morning.  He seems to be accepted, now, by most of the other ducks.  I just hope he's nice to Pepper:

More scaup, gadwalls and other water birds

Lake Murray is getting even more scaup.  I understand that they're a bit early this year.  

It looks like most of the ones that have arrived are young males.

Gadwalls are increasing.  Here is a trio along with a wood duck:

The male will answer to the name "Gaddy", but I know it's not Gaddy because he's already in his beautiful smooth gray colors and hanging out with his mallard girlfriend.

So many coots have arrived at the lake.  They are spread out over every inch:

The sora, a winter favoirte, is also already here:

I thought I would throw in this photo of Pink Legs, the young western gull, practicing his fishing.  Most gulls don't make it to full maturity at three to four years old.  Pink Legs looks to be between one and two years old, so he's got a chance.  Most gulls that die do so their first year then mortality drops off.

Signs of fall waterfowl migration

I saw several signs that fall migration is in full swing.  First, a large flock of long-billed dowitchers flew over the lake before leaving.  Then, I saw some new duck species.  

Though we have some gadwalls most of the year, I saw a few new ones.  I know that Project Wildlife was going to release a few, but that was over a month ago.  This gadwall was really cute, not as pretty as Gaddy, the resident male gadwall, but pretty cute.  Note the bright red feathers near the wings.

Also, I saw a few small green-winged teals:

Here's a mallard pair:

We have two new young dumped ducks.  I wish people, at least would fatten up their dumpees before they dump them:

The blonde duck is changing colors and seems to be getting a gray head:

Jill has been very sick and even disappeared for a few days.  I thought she was dead, but she wasn't.  She seems better today, but has lost some weight.

I think this might be Smudge:

And, I think this might be her baby, the first baby I've seen in the season.  He still has baby down.

I don't know if you can see them well, but I think these are two juveniles in the ballfield.  They were horsing around and play-fighting.  One looks a lot like Pollux:

You probably can't see it, but there's four killdeer in this photo, two adults and the two juveniles who seem to be having a lot of fun.  I think the adults might be Squeak and Pollux.

I also saw a young male mallard with fishing line wrapped so tightly around his leg that I can see the foot tissue dying.  He might be one of Butterscotch's ducklings or another duckling that flew in.  He's definitely over four months old because he's almost in full adult colors, but still has a young face.

Gaddy the gadwall returns

I was thinking of Gaddy the beautiful gadwall this morning and how I hadn't seen him for a while.  But, he showed up for me.  Gaddy was one of two gadwall ducklings hatched at the lake and he lives there all year around.  I think his sister, though, took off with a male mallard as I haven't seen her since last fall.  Gaddy is molting and he doesn't look as cute as he did when he molted last year.

I threw in this photo of Bumblefoot who is still alive and still in pretty bad shape.  I hope she heals more.

 Canal Mama is doing well with her four ducklings, but they were not in the canal, but out on the lake.

Fish Food Mama's ducklings are getting their wing feathers.  I only saw 7 of them, but I'm sure the rest were there, hiding.  They should be able to fly in a couple of weeks.

I saw this mother with 9 tiny ducklings, a day old.

She was not doing a very good job of organizing them and made very little vocalizations.

Unfortunately, while I was there, two gulls made several attempts at grabbing one of her ducklings.  I managed to shoo the gulls away, but after I left, I saw them attack again, but didn't get any.  The mom seemed to be clueless about the gulls.

I think this mama lost all her ducklings to gulls last year in another area.  At least she tried to raise them in a different area this year.  But, I don't expect these ducklings to survive.  None of the ducklings in this area have survived so far.  The only ducklings that seem to survive are the ones with very organized, bossy mothers.

She even led the ducklings right up to this night heron.  But, at the time, I think he just wanted to sleep.

The osprey chicks are just about ready to fly off.  Their parents are trying to coax them from the nest.  One seems interested.

And, finally, I have to say "good-bye" to Big Daddy.  Here's his last photo, taken while he was sick early in April.  He seemed to get better and disappeared a couple weeks later, most likely with the other males in his group. I suspect he got too weak and curled up in the brush or reeds and died.  He's been gone before, but never for a month or more.  He was there at least four years.   I also said "good-bye" to several other ducks such as Cinnamon's Twin's Twin, the crested rouen, and the "little girl" pekin duck that the males beat up.