A few birds for a nice January morning

The lesser scaup are hanging around near the shore of Lake Murray, waiting for handouts.  This is the time of year they try to fatten up for migration.

I first saw Pepper with Fish Food mama and her mate, but he was so bothered by me that he swam away and is hanging out by himself.  His brother is off chasing girls:

There is one little green-winged teal girl there, today.  I took this photo a few days ago:

This is all that is left of the resident geese.  The three other Canada geese aren't getting along with the white goose in the background, so they were off in the water on their own.

I took a photo of this blue-gray gnatcatcher the other day when I was counting the birds.  Today, I heard several California gnatcatchers:

Mama raven was being harassed by a crow (on the right) who wanted to steal a piece of trash that Mama raven was checking out.

I think this might be a young, sick, California gull.  A lot of young gulls get sick their first and second winter and don't make it.  Most gulls don't make it to full maturity:

I accidentally disturbed this black-crowned night heron.  Sorry heron!

Ring-bills, teals, and woodpeckers

There's still at least one teal at Lake Murray.  Here she is with a male mallard.

There are so many coots, scaups, and ruddy ducks now:

Baby Blue, the dumped domestic duckling,  seems to like to eat Mazuri waterfowl food. He's gotten a lot larger, lately:

Though he is now mostly feathered out, his feathers are not in good condition.  I suspect that his previous owner didn't feed him very well and now he's growing up on junk food.  I hope his condition improves:

I found this blue heron standing on a railing.  I guess if they can hang onto branches, they can stand on a rail.  I think this might be the mom heron or one of the babies.  Mom heron was very grayish like this one:

Finally saw some ring-billed gulls, three young ones:

This Nuttall's woodpecker was out in the open when I first saw him, but when I turned the camera on him, he began to hide from me:

Someone said they spotted a glaucous-winged gull there, but I didn't see him.

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.

Tijuana River Estuary

Today, I took a bird walk down to the Tijuana River Natural Esturarine Research Reserve.

We saw several northern harriers, males and females.  Here's a couple pictures of a female:

Northern Harrier Female

Northern Harrier Female

There was also a white-tailed kite, but it was too far away to get a good photo of.

We also saw some curlews.

Long Billed Curlew

Long Billed Curlew

Curlews and Willets

A light-footed clapper rail came out into the sunlight.

Light-footed clapper rail

Some teal and ducks:

Green-winged teal

Mallards