Killdeer shocked at egret's breakfast and baby updates

The killdeer above, at Lake Murray, was extremely upset after he flew up to check me out yesterday. He didn't notice the great egret when he first arrived, but after a few seconds, I could hear an angry trill. I don't know if he was trilling at me or at the heron who was noshing on a squirrel it had just drowned. Later, the egret had a live squirrel and swallowed it whole before the squirrel was dead. Then, the egret had that look that one gets when they've eaten too much. I hope those two squirrels meant that he was done eating for the day.

Even though those two squirrels died a horrible death and will never experience life again, it doesn't mean that there will be a squirrel shortage. For those who like the squirrels, you can rest assured that plenty of babies are growing up to replace those adults. And, these babies are super quick, too.

There are at least two baby osprey in the osprey nest and they're almost ready to go. I think this is mom waiting for dad to get home with breakfast in the morning:

This California quail is one of at least three quails making a lot of noise. I love to hear the sounds of quail. Most of the quail live in Coyoteland. Even though coyote do eat quail, they also eat a lot of the things that eat quail and quail babies. So, I guess the quail feel it's worth the risk living with the canines:

Pied-billed grebe babies making lots of noise, demanding to be fed:

Even though Peaches and the other mother lost all their babies, Miss Whiteear was seen across the lake with three bitties of her own. She was being harassed by the males, but seemed attentive to her youngins. A heron was over there looking for them, but she was keeping her babies moving and hidden under the cover.

The baby geese are doing well despite the brown grass:

This female domestic duck was dumped about a month ago. She's in poor condition, probably from not being cared for properly. I couldn't get a photo of her until now. She looks a lot like Ducky Ducky who passed away a few months ago:

Mr. Squeaky is still having trouble with his eyes. Otherwise, all the male Pekins are looking very healthy.

Down to 7 ducklings

The original title of my blog post this morning was going to be "8 great ducklings!"  because when I first arrived at the lake, I found Mama with all eight of her ducklings, alive and well, running around in the open.  Here are some photos of them very early in the morning:

We all marveled at how she has been able to keep eight ducklings alive in this area for four days, right where the other mothers in this area have had theirs all eaten by this age.

I passed a great egret (about the size of a blue heron) at the lake, earlier, but he was really far from this family, so I didn't worry.

I took pictures of all of them, but couldn't get them all together. I then walked on.  They all moved towards the boat docks, running around in the rocks.  About twenty minutes later, I saw a great egret take off close to where I last saw the ducklings.  I didn't see anything in his bill, but it did look like he had recently swallowed something.  He sure was trying to get out of that area really fast.

When I got to another area where I could see the ducklings through my binoculars, I counted only seven.  At a couple of other spots, I checked again, and only spotted seven ducklings.  Until, finally, I found them and confirmed that one duckling was gone.  I think it was the duckling in the front of this photo:

Here he is again, in front of these two black ducklings.  He was always running ahead of everyone else and I think he was the smallest.

Later, I got photos of the remaining seven ducklings:

Mom with six of the seven ducklings, including the four remaining regular colored ones.  The other black one was lagging behind.  He seems to be the weakest.

I hope that's the last of the ones that go missing.  This is a critical age as it was at this age that several other mothers lost most or all of their ducklings.  Fish Food Mama is taking a risk with raising them in this area.  But, they are growing bigger and faster.  Hopefully, Mama made it difficult for the egret so that he will think twice about trying to catch another duckling.  Usually, he's not in that area and, hopefully, mama will not let him get away with getting another one in the future.

No sign of any other ducklings in the area.

The killdeers haven't been as active lately and I usually only see the three males in the one ballfield each time I visit there.  However, I swear I saw Miracle and her daughter in that field for a brief time this morning.  Killer Jr. and Miracle's daughter would be about seven or eight weeks old now.  About ten minutes later, I saw the three boys, again.

Someone asked me how Jill was doing with her Canada goose boyfriend.  They seem to be doing OK, but I still don't think the Canada goose acts much like her boyfriend.  He was following her around a little today, though.