Lost ducklings return!

Today was a warm, sunny day and I found a few "lost" ducklings at the lake today.  My first puzzle was this little duckling just getting her speculum feathers, but still has down on her back.  I would say she is probably a little younger than Neo.  I think it's one of Brown Mama's ducklings and she has Brown Mama's brown head:

Later, I saw her feeding in Neo's feeding area, but I know it's not Neo because of the orange bill.  Neo was out hanging around with the older drakes.

Here are two ducklings that I think were the two that I saved from a gull back about a month or 6 weeks ago.  One duckling looks a little older than the other, but they were still vocalizing like ducklings.

This duckling just showed up out of the blue and started hanging around Fish Food Mama and one of her daughters.  Fish Food Mama is just about to chase her away in this photo.  She has her full speculum feathers, but not her primary feathers.  I don't have a clue who she is.

Her markings on her face look almost exactly like Neo's last sibling and I have found no other duckling close to this age with this face marking.  Plus, she has the same chin markings and marking at the edge of her bill as this duckling, too.  However, she seems to be a week or two older than Neo.  I am wondering if someone "rescued" this duckling, thinking it was abandoned, and it was re-released recently.

Neo's last sibling

I don't think ducks begin get their speculum feathers until they are about 10-12 weeks of age and, I think Neo is about 10.5 weeks old now, but I haven't seen him getting his speculums.

Bossy's mom has only two ducklings now and she was seen right under the heron's nest.

Not a good idea to be a duckling under a heron's nest when the baby herons are fledging:

We have a new bunch of baby ducks today, here they are passing by the gauntlet of gulls on the beach.    Mom was great and did a good job fending off the gulls.  Half her brood is rouen-ish looking and they all look very sleepy in this photo.  I think this is Big Daddy's daughter, but I'm not sure:

Fish Food Mom still has her five ducklings, four pictured here:

Mama with two:

Sweetie:

The two sister ducks are now fully feathered and ready to fly:

Killdeer:


This is a juvenile killdeer who is hanging around with Giant killdeer. I think it's Pollux Junior, but I'm not sure:

Pollux and his two daughters were in another field.  Here is Pollux chasing away another male, possibly either a cousin or even a younger sibling, who seems interested in his two girls:

Pollux does not approve of this male as a mate for his daughter

Keeping an eye on the other, young, male

Protecting Smudge

Smudge didn't see interested in the male and came up to me to check me out.  Her dad is in the background all puffed up:

 Peanut was heard, but not seen.  When the dad and the other male parted, Smudge followed her dad.

Killdeer and Duckies!

Squeak and a coot

There were killdeer out this morning.  It looks like three females and George III who seems to be attracted to his cousin, Squeak.  Below, there are two females, possibly George's two other daughters or Dee and with one of the younger females.

In this next photo, I found this killdeer all alone in the ballfields.  I don't know who it is and he wasn't quite shaped like Squiggy, but could me.  He looked a little bit like Shy from the side.  Here he is trying to hide from me.

Spoonface (he just took a drink of water):

Pepper was standing in a way that made him look almost exactly like Buffy, especially in the shade.  I couldn't get a photo of him standing that way, but here he is standing off to the side:

Cinnamon:

Female lesser scaup:

Male lesser scaup:

I saw these geese first thing in the morning.  32 of them heading east:

Baby Bob:

And, finally, some turkey vultures.  I don't know why that one was holding his wings out, perhaps to cool off.  They ate a dead fish nearby.

George spends the afternoon with his sons

George and Martha's Family

George was seen in his feeding area at Lake Murray, San Diego, with his two sons. It's amazing how much bigger Tiny is than his dad and how much weight George has lost. All three seemed to get along, though sometimes Tiny would get a little aggressive with his dad and brother, but his dad reminded him of who the boss of the territory was whenever Tiny acted out. Killer stayed off by himself, but not totally. Whenever he flew close to Tiny and George, both killdeer would do territorial calls, but then calm down after a few minutes. Neither juvenile made any aggressive move towards their dad and often chirped at him when they got nervous. Eventually, Killer went off on his own and Tiny and his dad continued feeding together.

Tiny

His dad, George, not seen for a long time

Killer, keeping his distance

Ballfield Killdeer:

Many of the ballfield killdeer were gone save for three. One was an unknown female that may have been the M6 mom all alone. Shy was in another field with an unknown killdeer, possibly a male. The other killdeer didn't look like her dad. Both kept their distance from each other and didn't seem to want to get too close to the other.

Shy, without her dad for the first time I've ever seen

This killdeer seems protective of Shy, but keeps his distance. Don't know who it is, possibly her brother, Secret

Also seen:

Since it was mid to late afternoon, many of the birds were in hiding. Children often come and throw rocks in the lake or chase the birds around and many don't want to deal with that. The mornings have been foggy and I wanted to get shots of birds in the afternoon sun. But, very few of them were out. Even the ducks were hiding.

Nothing clears a neighoborhood like a hawk

Well, the rise in Lake Murray's water levels, the lack of insects on the lakeshore and the presence of hawks seem to have caused many birds to go elsewhere. I know that it will only be temporary, though. As soon as the food comes back, all the insect-eating birds will be back. Of course, the ducks and geese don't seem to be affected.

I did see Tiny and Firecracker trying to feed in Alvarado Bay when I arrived, but Tiny got upset at something and he and his sister flew around the area, calling. I thought they landed on the north side, but when I checked, they weren't there. So, I figured they went to the secret hiding place where their parents and brother are staying.

Tiny on the right, Firecracker on the left

Tiny has gotten huge! He's much larger than his sister and it was really evident when they flew off together. Killer is also not as big as Tiny, too. I haven't seen Martha, but I think Tiny may be bigger than her and his dad, also. That's the power of naming something Tiny.

Tiny is just about the biggest killdeer I've ever seen. I don't think he's stopped growing.

In the ballfields, almost all the killdeer are gone. I only saw the three juveniles I saw last time. One of them, I think it's "Secret" flew off and around the area, calling, but got no response. He ended up flying into a field by himself. I don't know where Mary or the rest of the flock went to. But, they will be back when they're sure the hawk has moved on, or at least stopped focusing it's hunting on their feeding areas.

The hawk was hanging around there because people feed the doves, squirrels, rabbits, starlings and grackles. They would gather in big groups that the hawk couldn't resist trying to catch one. Someone got a rabbit within the last few days, but I don't know if it was a hawk or a coyote.

Also seen: I didn't see anything new or unusual today, but yesterday, I saw three greater yellowlegs all together. I didn't see them today.

Some interesting juveniles

Two young ballfield killdeer, the one on the left looks a lot like Tiny

Today, none of George's family were in the bay, though I did hear Martha's raspy call when a boat got too close to the shore past the fenced off area. So, I'm sure they were there. As I walked around, I could tell that there was no killdeer food at all in their usual feeding area, no fish, flies or ants. All the insect eating birds were also gone. There was some small flies on the north side of the parking lot and a little sandpiper was eating them, but not a whole lot.

In the ballfields, very few killdeer were seen. At one ballfield, I saw a killdeer that looked a lot like Tiny from the side. I went onto the field and this killdeer, along with his companion, were not very afraid and did no alarm calls. I took lots of photos and when I looked at them closely, I could tell they were not Tiny or any of the Alvarado Bay killdeer. The other killdeer could have been another male, or a female, it was hard to tell. It seemed very attached to the one that looked like Tiny and the one that looked like Tiny did not make any threatening calls or trills when it came close.

Nope, not Tiny, but looks very similar

A friendly companion that liked the Tiny look-a-like

A third killdeer, a male, dropped down into the ballfield and called the other two towards him. That confirmed that it was not Tiny in that field as Tiny has been getting more and more aggressive as he gets older and will not tolerate any other male to get close to him even though his brother begs for his attention.

This third killdeer had an odd shaped head and coloration. I don't know if it's just odd-growing feathers or something really is wrong with his head.

The one on the left has something wrong with its head. The one on the right has almost the exact same profile as Tiny

All three appear to be juveniles, but I don't know where they were raised or whose chicks they are. They were at least 6 weeks old, so I know they're not Junior's chicks as they aren't quite at flying age yet. I don't think they're the M6 chicks as two of the three of those were females and I double checked their baby photos to make sure.

Also seen:

A blue heron, possibly the juvenile one who has just molted into his adult plumage. He managed to get something to eat in Alvarado Bay that was black, but I don't know what. Also, I noticed that he got the fishing line off his leg (or it could be a different heron).

Tiny gets upset and a new chick?

Today, I didn't see anyone in George's territory when I arrived, but I did see two sandpipers and a green heron fishing for all the thousands of minnows in the area.

At the ballfield, I counted 15 killdeer between two fields. I'm sure all three chicks of the M6 territory are there as well as dad, but I can't be certain. However, I did find this curious little guy on a pitcher's mound, watching me. He looked like he still had some down on him, so I estimated that he was less than 5 weeks old. He could fly very well, though. He wasn't afraid of me at all and came really close, trying to get a look at me.

Cute little guy

This female, who looks like the M6 mom, was very concerned about him and called him back to her.

Watch out, it's dangerous there, says this female

This male, who looks like Secret, was concerned about the female who was concerned about the young male. That's Mary in the foreground.

"Secret" and Mary, I think

I'm wondering if the M6 mom was maintaining two different nests about two to three weeks apart. She had three chicks from one, but when the other nest started to hatch, she took one chick and paid attention to the other new hatchlings, going back between the two families. So far, I only see one chick of that age there.

They (the possible mom and the young killdeer) took off across Del Cerro Bay along with Secret and I think Mary, too. Suddenly, two of the killdeer abruptly changed direction near where the hawks like to roost. Two went to the south and I think the other two ended up on another ballfield. I didn't see any hawks, but they could have been there. I hope there weren't any hawks, especially if it's the little guy's first day out.

I heard a killdeer flying around from the north to the south side of the main parking lot in the south, making alarm calls. I heard two to three responses to it, but I couldn't tell who it was that was flying over.

On my way back around the lake, I found and heard a strange call of a nervous bird who didn't stay still on the north side of the parking lot. Finally, it stopped and let me take photos of it. It was a greater yellowlegs.

Look at me, I am pretty, right?

The yellowlegs went around to Alvarado Bay. Shortly after it arrived there, I heard a killdeer alarm call, then a territorial call, and a trill. Then, it was quiet for a while. When I arrived, the only killdeer I saw was Tiny, all alone. He seemed very upset and nervous. While I was there, he was quiet, but when I started leaving, the yellowlegs started to call and Tiny began making alarm calls. I don't know if Tiny was trying to warn the rest of the family I was coming, or if he was really upset about the yellowlegs. It's possible that he was trying to scare it away with the trill and the territorial call and when it didn't go away, he started to do alarm calls. The yellowlegs responded with his own call.

I don't know what that is, says Tiny

I watched through my binoculars and could see Tiny watching the yellowlegs as it approached him while he stood on a rock. But, the yellowlegs was only interested in the minnows and didn't bother Tiny at all. So, Tiny began to calm down and was fine when I left. He probably figured that this wasn't a killdeer after his territory or was going to hurt him.

It was the first time that I've heard any of the chicks make an alarm call while still on the ground.

No sign of the rest of the family, but they've gotten good at hiding in plain sight around there. I thought I heard them calling from across the bay in the fenced area.

Also seen:

A juvenile green heron early in the morning:



Lots of song sparrows as always. This one has a seed in it's mouth.

Hawks and Tiny's "Talent"

"Killer" watches out for hawks

Today, when I arrived at the lake, I think I saw Tiny and his mom, Martha, together, sleeping. They woke up and flew to another part of the bay. Tiny and Martha look so much alike in many ways, their breast bands are very similar and Tiny sometimes can look female in direct light, except you can see a little bit of a mustache growing. They have slightly different shaped heads, but are pretty close to the same size.

Tiny in the morning

Tiny and his mom

Hawk Scare

When I went to the ballpark area, I only found 7 killdeer and I think they were all adults. They were doing alarm deets and looking at me standing outside the fence. This was unusual as they don't usually get upset when I stand where I was standing. They were also hardly moving and then they began laying down in the grass. This is a sign that they are hiding from a visual predator such as a hawk. So, I looked around and found a Cooper's Hawk right above me. He swooped down to catch a grackle, who got away, and then perched right above my head. I thought of taking a photos, but decided not to.

I went away to check on the duckling, but he was not there, again. In fact, almost all the ducks were gone from that area save a couple of males and one female, not the duckling's mom. There were about twenty ducks laying on the shore in a closed area. I figured the duckling and his mom just went somewhere else due to the heat we've been having.

When I came back, the hawk was gone and so were all the killdeer and other birds. One male killdeer was there, alone when I went onto the field, but he flew over towards George's territory. Other killdeer were heard on Del Cerro and Cowles Point, most likely the adult chicks and, possibly, their mom.

When I was leaving, I was hoping to see George with Firecracker and Killer, but, instead, found the two brothers, Tiny and Killer comforting each other without a parent in sight. When Killer got a little nervous because of a dog passing by, he chirped to his brother and began walking towards him. Then, Tiny met him and did a trill, a greeting that I've heard the brothers do before. Trilling is usually associated with an angry killdeer, but I think, in this case, this was a happy sound they made to make sure neither of them wanted to fight.

Killer

His brother, Tiny

Tiny's "Talent":

I've heard of killdeer eating dead minnows before, but Tiny seems to have a knack for catching live ones. I've caught him, at least twice, catching minnows and even have a photo of him doing so:

Look! I caught a fish! Now, what do I do?

He seems to bite them through their middle, but the tail parts of the fish wrap around his nostrils and upper part of his bill. I believe he waits until the fish dies, rinses his bill and eats the remaining parts as they wash off. I never see him do anything different than any other killdeer in catching them, yet he seems to be able to. He must move quicker than the eye.

When another group of people walked by, including a little girl who was not very respectful of wildlife, they flew off. As I was leaving, I heard the aggressive deet sound and saw one killdeer chasing another. I think it was George chasing away one of the seven killdeer, most likely the lone bachelor, sending him back to the ballfield area. He even took a swipe at the intruder. I would bet that this male got a look at Firecracker and may have tried to steal her away, but dad said "no". Apparently, Firecracker said, "no" also as she didn't follow him.

A good thing about crows:

Crows have a bad reputation and I have to admit that they quite often deserve it. They attack and tease other birds for no reason. They also eat eggs and chicks and sometimes kill adult birds. But, one thing crows are good for is keeping birds of prey out of the area. A red-tail hawk was circling around George's territory, probably looking for squirrels or rabbits, but the crows attacked him. And, crows seem to know the difference between a hawk and a vulture, too. Two vultures were flying nearby, un-harassed, but the hawk was definitely unwelcome in the crows' area.

Also seen:

Cute, cute, cute: A sanderling family of 4!



They were adorable, bathing and being cute. I think two are juvenile.



Sanderlings are brave and not afraid of larger birds. I've seen them attack killdeer, who often gang up on them. They aren't even really afraid of people and not shy at all. And, they can be cute, too!