Indy goes to the wildlife hospital

Someone told me that a certain duck at the lake had a fishing lure stuck to him when I came there to count birds today.  When I looked around, I saw it was Indy, short for Independent Duckling, one of Fish Food Mama's ducklings from back in May.  A fishing lure with two sets of three pronged hooks on each size, similar to this was attached to his legs in several places. He also had a few feet of fishing line attached to the lure that could have injured him even more or, perhaps, strangle him, if we hadn't have caught him. We tried to remove all prongs, but a couple were too deep to get out.  So, instead of risking injuring Indy more, he was crated up and I took him to Project Wildlife:

Indy in his "ambulance"

 Indy seemed to feel a lot better even after removing all the pieces that we could and even got up and moved around in the crate.  He was also very strong and healthy otherwise.  So, barring any broken bones or damaged tendons, I suspect that Indy will be back at the lake with his family in a couple of weeks.

In other duckling news, Zippy and Skippy as well as Yellowcheeks are doing great!  They should be flying in a couple of weeks or so.

And, in killdeer land, guess who this is in the next photo.  It's Miracle's and Killer Junior's baby!  She is so curious, but this makes dad very nervous.

There were dogs outside the ballfield and Killer Junior made sure to sound alarm calls.

I also did a bird count, though it was interrupted because I had to take Indy in to the wildlife hospital.  Here are the results of my monthly count for September at Lake Murray:

Canada Goose  3
Gadwall  1
Mallard  224
Mallard (Domestic type)  31
California Quail  1
Pied-billed Grebe  20
Western Grebe  4
Western/Clark's Grebe  3
Double-crested Cormorant  7
Snowy Egret  1
Green Heron  3
Black-crowned Night-Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Osprey  1
Northern Harrier  1
Cooper's Hawk  1
Red-tailed Hawk  3
American Coot  113
Killdeer  4
Western Gull  32
California Gull  6
Forster's Tern  1
Rock Pigeon  27
Mourning Dove  72
Anna's Hummingbird  50
Costa's Hummingbird  3
Allen's Hummingbird  4
Nuttall's Woodpecker  5
Black Phoebe  8
Cassin's Kingbird  6
Hutton's Vireo  1
Western Scrub-Jay  3
American Crow  3
Common Raven  2
Bushtit  20
Bewick's Wren  2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1
California Gnatcatcher  5
Common Yellowthroat  7
Yellow Warbler  2
California Towhee  5
Song Sparrow  25
Red-winged Blackbird  10
Great-tailed Grackle  35
House Finch  40
Lesser Goldfinch  22
American Goldfinch  1

Happy birding!

George visits his son, a hurt duck, small birdies

Today was a cloudy, almost rainy day, so most of the photos I took came out very blurry. Here are a few:

One of Martha:



One of Tiny and his new mate:



Here's one of the family, minus Tiny's mate.



Tiny and his dad get along extremely well, but his mom, Martha, has a problem with Tiny's mate, especially if she gets close to George, her mate.

I don't know where Firecracker is, but when the family started to move further away, George ran back and forth seeming to look for her. So, she still might be around.

The ballfield killdeer were hanging around on the shoreline. I didn't know they were there until a hawk swooped at them, sending all 10 flying off. They all went and hid in plain sight on top of some brown dirt and rocks:



Ducks:

All the ducks are doing fine, but this one was the victim of the predator attack and the owner of the clump of down I posted about earlier. I don't know if anything can be done for him, perhaps he might heal on his own. I think he's one of Flycatcher's brothers:



Tom is looking good!



Oreo is wondering where the food is:



Here's the new crested duck:



Ducky plays around with a gadwall and his friends:



And, I think this is Chocolate 2! I don't remember her having a green bill, though. In her last photo, her bill was orange. This might be Chocolate 4, but when I called her name, she recognized me and ran right up:



Birdies:

Here are some nutmeg manikins (a former caged bird that escaped):



This is a gold-crowned sparrow, though you can't see the crown:



And, a white-crowned sparrow:



The blue heron followed me everywhere, all around the lake:

Injured duck alert! Also, it's getting loony!

There is a cute, friendly female mallard at Lake Murray (in San Diego) with what looks like a fishing hook in her leg/foot. I tried to catch her, but she got suspicious of me and went across the lake. She seems mostly OK, just limping. I am not sure if the hook can be removed without a vet.



I originally thought it was Flycatcher, but she's doing just fine.



Also, all three "Fish Food" ducklings are doing well, too.



And, here is Chocolate 2 (the female):



"Ducky" (the lost duckling) is a girl! Here she is:



I thought she would be a boy with her green bill. There's another female duck that I thought might be a male, but she is definitely a female and starting to flirt.


Also seen:

Several ruddy ducklings:



The pretty female gadwall:



And, a first for me, a common loon:

The killdeer were nowhere to be seen, but I heard at least 2, one near where George likes to hide and another near the ballfields.