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!

Killdeer story

Today, I saw lots of killdeer out and about.  Many of them were new ones I've never seen before.  The first ones I saw were Squeak and Pollux, but I didn't take any photos of them.  I went on and found two more whom, I thought were the two that stay in one of the ballfields where one looks like Secret's son.  Nope.  To my surprise, as I began to photograph the bird, he began to chirp and jump around in a manner that only Killer Junior could do.

Killer Junior

And, just a little ways away, there was a female!  At first, I thought, this can't be Miracle because she looks perfect.  Then, when I looked closely at the photo, I could see a small flap of skin just under her eye going to just behind it.  It's barely noticeable.  I think this is, indeed, the formally bald killdeer chick.  The photo is a bit fuzzy, I'll try to get a better one, later:

Miracle now

Here she is at about three weeks old:

Miracle last year

When I came back to the ballfields, I found this female whom I, at first, thought was Shy and her mate. Nope, it's an entirely new female I haven't seen before.  She looks a lot like Shy, though.  Perhaps she's Shy's other chick.  I also thought I heard a chick peeping nearby.

Here is the male that was with her.  I couldn't get an ID on him at all:

I thought I was taking a photo of Junior's mate.  He was off fighting with another male.  But, no, this is yet another female I have never seen before.  I found Junior's mate on the other side of the lake where she normally is.  I guess another couple has come to visit them.  I didn't notice the fishing line in the front of the photo.  :(

Bob2 has been hanging around lately.  Here she is feeding in an unusual location.  It's good to see her.

The long-billed dowitcher is still hanging around.  I have no idea what it was eating, but it was eating something.  I think it's getting juvenile quagga mussels

Finally, this poor female duck (the beige one), has been hurt by over-breeding.  It looks like her foot and hip is hurting.  I am trying to get her some help, but I don't know if it will be possible.