Counting day!

It's counting day at Lake Murray again.  Here are some photos to start you off.  We have killdeer activity, I think Killer and Dee may have returned, but I am not sure.  Everyone is looking for a mate except the adults.

In these next photos, I think one of the killdeers is Pollux, one is an unknown male, and one might be Smudge or Peanut.

The male on the top of the rock got excited and tried to do a nest scrape when the killdeer on the lower rock turned around.

I think that is Pollux threatening the strange killdeer.

Miracle and Little Miracle where not far away, waiting for the males to tell them to come back.  Here is Little Miracle.

And, I think this is Miracle, or the other way around.  They look a lot alike.

This is Smudge:

These are juveniles, looks like a male and a female.  Could be Peanut and her brother, or could be two new killdeer, most likely siblings:

I am not sure who this is, but it might be Killer Junior.  However, he looks a lot like Surprise whom I haven't seen in a long time.

Plenty of white-crowned sparrows now and yellow-rumped warblers.

The dumped ducks haven't lost any more from their group in the last couple of days.  They seem to be getting less afraid of everything.

They even came on shore to see if they could get a treat.

Here is one of the crested ones.  All three of the crested ones have lost a lot of feathers in their crest since they arrived.

This duck looks a lot more like Indy than the other one last week. He even has little scars on the same leg that Indy had the hooks attached to.  One of his feet had a blister or scar where one of the hooks was. So, this is most likely Indy and not the other one.  He seemed very tired today.

Indy's siblings were hanging out in their old area.  I think the one in front is Sweetie and the other is one of Indy's brother.  Indy's other brother was just out of the photo:

Also, I saw "Puffy Head" today.  he was back with Donald and Buffy2 in their usual spot.

Here's how the count went:

Species	Count
Canada Goose	3
Gadwall	2
American Wigeon	9
Mallard	139
Mallard (Domestic type)	47
Ruddy Duck	7
California Quail	20
Pied-billed Grebe	6
Western Grebe	8
Double-crested Cormorant	8
Green Heron	4
Turkey Vulture	3
Osprey	1
Cooper's Hawk	1
Red-shouldered Hawk	1
Sora	1
American Coot	1005
Killdeer	14
Western Gull	25
California Gull	5
Forster's Tern	3
Rock Pigeon	72
Mourning Dove	20
Anna's Hummingbird	68
Belted Kingfisher	3
Nuttall's Woodpecker	6
Black Phoebe	9
Cassin's Kingbird	5
American Crow	8
Bushtit	84
Bewick's Wren	1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	2
California Gnatcatcher	2
European Starling	2
Common Yellowthroat	6
Yellow-rumped Warbler	27
California Towhee	8
Song Sparrow	17
White-crowned Sparrow	52
Red-winged Blackbird	31
Western Meadowlark	1
Brewer's Blackbird	3
Great-tailed Grackle	65
House Finch	115
Lesser Goldfinch	50
Nutmeg Mannikin	10

Everyone is growing up!

More ducklings have hatched and all of Peaches' and some of Caramel's ducklings have made it to about 4 weeks old, save the ones that they stole from Butterscotch, who are three weeks.

7 ducklings

Pepper and the gray duckling

Pepper

Also, three of the four killdeer chicks from the M6 parents have been seen flying. The smallest chick, Pollux, has not been seen, yet, but may be nearby.

Castor

Squiggy

Spike

Killer was having an argument with another killdeer that looked a little bit like his brother, Tiny:



Junior was courting his mate by scraping a hole in the ground right in the middle of where people, dogs, ducks, crows, and seagulls all walk! In fact, two people with dogs walked right through his nest scrape. I hope this is only a courtship scrape and not a real nest scrape:



So many new ducklings today. Ducky's girlfriend was seen with some little ones. First, she was seen with only one. Later, she was seen with two more.



And, here's a mom with about a dozen new ducklings. I couldn't get a photo of all of them:



The mom who had started with four, then had three, and now one was seen with her one duckling. It's entirely possible, with all the new mothers around, that the other two may have gone off with another brood:




One heron chick has fledged, the other is still waiting his turn. But, his sibling visits the nest now and then.



I found a surprise today, a juvenile black-crowned night heron:



The sad thing was that there was a small, dead, wet duckling nearby. I don't know if this heron was the reason why it was dead or if it was carried there by something else. The poor little duckling had been dead for a while and was emaciated. It looked like it had never eaten anything. His eyes were closed and one leg was stretched out. I suspect he may have died from drowning or hypothermia and was picked out of the water by either the heron or the nearby seagulls.

Surprise is back!

Surprise is back and it looks like he wants to steal his half-sister, Digger from Killer (George's son). He was clucking and flirting with her, but Killer would attack him every time he showed an interest in her. Surprise doesn't know that's his sister, his mom raised him on her own with his half-brother, Secret, who is two weeks older than him.

I have to say that Surprise's reaction to Killer was a lot different than his reaction to George, whom he seemed terrified of.

Killer, right, Surprise, left

He actually stood up to Killer.

Killer, left, surprise, right

But, backed down eventually.



Killer stood between him and Digger.



The couple stood together, united against Surprise.



Eventually, some people and their dogs began to walk around in the area where they were at and the couple flew off together, leaving Surprise by himself.

Also seen:

The spotted sandpiper and the ducks:



Ducky was sleeping with his friends:


And, this phoebe demanded his photo be taken:



A couple of vultures were seen flying around where George and Martha hide from people. I didn't see George and it was odd that he didn't come over to chase Surprise away from his territory. Perhaps he didn't want to disturb his son and his potential mate or figured that his son would handle it. I think the vultures were after the coot that died earlier this week that may have washed up on that side of the lake. Also, I think there is one missing goose, too. Let's all think good thoughts about George and the rest of the killdeer family and hopefully, we'll be seeing all of them again, soon.

"Shy" is popular with the boys

Shy

This is a continuation of my last post.

Shy seems to be popular with the boys. In the ballfields, I found her dad, alone, at first.

The beautiful "M6" dad

As I was leaving, I heard killdeer deets and saw some killdeer land in another field. When I looked, I found Shy, her dad, and another killdeer in the field. Shy was being chased and harassed by the un-related killdeer who looked a lot like Digger, her sister, but clucked at her like a male.

Shy being chased

I don't think Shy likes this male as she never came back to him when he chased her. However, as she moved close to her dad to get support, this other male wouldn't stop pursuing her. Shy's dad watched, but did not interfere. I really think that Shy doesn't want to be this male's mate.

Chased again

Another male, one who looked similar to "Killer," George's son, but scarred up from fights, watched from outside the fence with intense interest. When I went over to get a better photo of him, he flew inside the fence but did not interfere with Shy's problem.

Another male watches the couple

I'm going to check on these birdies tomorrow. However, it has been very hot, lately, and I hope that the heat will not take a toll on the killdeer. Hopefully, they won't over-exert themselves and have the sense to drink lots of water.

George defends his territory

Today, there were lots of things happening in killdeer-land at Lake Murray and I will be posting the events in two parts. I will begin with what was going on in George's territory.

Tiny was seen early in the morning in the feeding area.

Caught Tiny sleeping this morning

However, he was gone a few hours later and two males were spotted feeding along the shoreline. One male was very, very hungry and eagerly tried to eat every bug he could catch. They were also both very easy to approach and watched me with curiosity. They looked like "Surprise" (the M6 chick's half brother who is 3 1/2 months old) and his older friend (The "Tiny look-a-like," a male about 4 1/2 months old) who has been like a brother to him since he arrived at the ballfields.

The "Tiny look-a-like" and Surprise (behind)

Well, to my surprise, George, who sees and knows everything that goes on his territory, showed up and was not happy about these two males in his feeding area eating all his food, so he was very aggressive towards them.

George chases the older juvenile

Surprise was actually scared of George and even hid behind a rock to keep from being attacked. One time, he was chased away, but did not want to leave his companion behind, so he came back.

Surprise (right) looks surprised (note the feathers on his head standing up) at George's aggression

George eying Surprise

George chasing Surprise away, but he came back

I think these young males were there to see Firecracker, who was probably sent away by George. That would explain the alarm calls they made when I went towards the area that she probably went. I didn't see her, but she might have been there a short time before. I think she may have been at the ballfields a week or two ago. They did not challenge George, but would not leave the area, which made him upset.

Later, George went and took a long drink of water. It was warm out today. I hope he's OK, but he does tend to drink a lot more than other killdeer most of the time.

Also seen:

Ducky was there with her duck friends:

Ducky was sleeping

I also got a photo of a white-crowned sparrow:



A juvenile herring gull--first I've ever seen:


And, a juvenile snowy egret:




Sad news:

In sad news, another dead coot was found in Alvarado bay. It was actually floating on top of the water with his head underwater. A friend of the coot came by to check on him and got scared. All the other coots stayed away, too. Eventually, he sank under water a few hours later.

I think when they get tired or weak, they have a hard time holding their head up and drown when they are too tired to keep it out of the water. It's possible it was sick and died in its sleep last night. Too bad.

Part 2: Shy (an M6 chick) is popular with the boys.