All killdeers! My favorite bird.

Killdeer are my favorite birds.  :)

Today, I saw a family of five killdeer flying around near Padre Point at Lake Murray.  I think it might have been George, his babies and maybe a new mate.  I did see some "large, round" killdeer of which one might be Martha, but I'm not sure.  Or, it might not have been George at all.

Here's one of the daughters.  She looks a lot like George.  I think I had one picture of George with her, but it was blurry.

This is the male killdeer that has taken over Padre Point and was challenging George.  I think he might have been interested in George's daughters, though.  He's very young, probably three months old and could be related to George or, perhaps, Georgina and Spike.  He yells at all humans just like Junior did.

On the other side of the lake, I found Miracle all alone.  It's not the first time she's been there all alone, but I worry about her mate, Killer Junior, because I think he's the one with the broken leg.  He might be taking care of their three grown chicks:

Killer was also there and was with a female that was not Dee.  I don't know who she is, but they seemed to know each other:

That's the female in front with Killer in the background.  Perhaps she's a daughter since I know Dee is still his mate and he hasn't taken a new one:

George and Martha are back?

I thought I saw George around a few times, but wasn't very sure.  I think this next picture might be him:

And, I think this might be Martha. I thought it might be Dee, at first, but Dee doesn't have two very distinct marks on her face that this killdeer has.  Both George and Martha were spotted very early in the morning.

Later, I think I saw George with a different killdeer.  It looked similar to Martha, but its breast bands were thinner.  Perhaps one of their offspring?

I think this might be George, again.

I thought I would take a photo of Pepper with his good side.

Tiny is the boss (or bully) of the ballfield

Ballfield killdeer:

Tiny waking up in the ballfields

Tiny made it through the night and was in the same spot where I left him this morning in the ballfield at Lake Murray. Several other killdeer were with him in that field, four friends in one field, two in the next and two parents in another field keeping an eye out for hawks. Several of the killdeer with Tiny seemed to be juveniles and at least one was a female and three were males, I'm not sure what the fifth one was.

Tiny made a move on the female who rejected him. But, Tiny didn't give up, began to chase her and was confronted by another male who backed off when Tiny challenged him. Other males came up, but Tiny bossed them all around. Then, everyone went back to eating.

Leave that female alone! says this male

Three males, Tiny in the middle, a female on the right

In the field next to them, the Tiny look-a-like was alone with the little baby (the youngest fledgling). I don't think they're related, but I think the bigger killdeer has taken a parental role in protecting the little one.

George and Martha's family:

No killdeers were seen in George's area. I am wondering what's going on with Killer and Firecracker. The water level seems to be going down, so maybe we'll see them again, soon. As I've said before, I have a strong suspicion that George and Martha have new little babies. I think Killer and Firecracker may be nearby, but probably not too close due to the new babies.

Not much else went on at the lake today. The ducks are fine, but when I did my count this morning, there seemed to be only half the mallards there usually were. It might be due to the weather. A lot of the white jumbo Pekin ducks were also missing, hopefully rescued and living a good life (not taken for meat).

A lot of the grackles are also gone, it seems.

Last night, I saw a "flock" of California quail.