The herons fledge, the male killdeer chicks leave

It looks like both heron chicks have fledged for good. I saw this one yesterday and when he got nervous, he flew back to the nest. But, today, there was no sign of life in the nest at all. I did see at least one heron still in the area, though.



The killdeer chicks and their parents have begun to go somewhere else other than the ballfield. Yesterday, Spike was in one ballfield and Squiggy was with his mom and dad. Castor and Pollux were not seen.

Squiggy

Today, Pollux was in a field next to Shy and her boyfriend who were beginning to mate and get serious about nesting again. He didn't get upset about me taking his photo.

Pollux

Peaches' ducklings are all still together. In fact, most of the ducklings are staying longer with their siblings and/or parents this year. Last year, they went off on their own by the time they were five weeks old. The ducklings have most of their feathers except for their fuzzy butts. In a couple of weeks, they will have their flight feathers.




Pepper looks like all the rest of the ducklings except for his black head. I wonder what his adult feathers will be like. Hopefully, we shall find out in a couple of months.



More duckling photos:

The parking lot ducklings (the last one of four):



Ducky's ducklings:



Those ducklings are very aggressive!

And, finally, these two killdeers were flirting. I think it's Junior and his mate. He just loves his girlfriend and can't stop flirting with her.

Nice warm day

Now that fall is here, we have summer, so it was a nice morning.

When I arrived, it was still a little dark and the killdeers were sleeping with their little heads tucked in (at least a couple of them were). I couldn't get a photo of that, though.

It's getting hard for me to keep track of all the different killdeer because they're all still flying around and mixing up. I didn't see Martha today, but I suspect that she is around somewhere.

I first saw George, the M6 male, Killer (George's son) and Shy (the M6's daughter) all hanging out. They flew away and I found Killer by himself near where he had first hatched.

Shy, the chick from across the lake

I think this is the M6 (Shy's) dad and Killer

So many killdeer flying around.

Later, I think I found George with an unknown juvenile, probably Tiny, and Firecracker. Four or five other killdeer where hanging around with them, too, but they got scared off by me and flew away.

George and an unknown juvenile, probably Tiny

Firecracker with her duck friends

Also seen:

I saw four spotted sandpipers together, but didn't get a good photo of them as they flew off while I was setting up my tripod.

I also saw this gull:



A blue heron:



And a snowy egret:



Here is Tom, the Muscovy duck, going for a swim. He seemed to be feeling good today and even came up when I called him, but I didn't have any food at that time.