Mostly a (domestic) ducky day

The lighting really hasn't been that great to take pictures in the morning at Lake Murray, so I haven't been taking that many.  Today, I mostly photographed the domestic waterfowl, so if you were wanting to see a lot of wild birds, I only posted a few wild waterfowl photos and an osprey.

First, we start with "One Foot" who was resting in his favorite spot.

Then, Puff and the newer domestics.  The female on the right is adorable, but I don't think she will survive the breeding season.  She seems to be really attracted to Puff, though the buff colored male is her best friend as they were dumped together.

Bigboi also likes the little girl.

Baby Blue is (on the bottom right) is almost as big as the Pekins now.  That is Pepper at the top who is so much smaller.

One of the bossy geese and the Canada goose that Jill loved, but rejected her:

The two Babbas and the Canada goose that was Louie's friend:

This lesser scaup was looking for a handout:

The Snowies were dabbling nearby.  You can see their heads under water:

Here is a female redhead looking for a handout:

This male redhead was watching her from a distance.  I wonder if they're the same redheads I see in this area every year?

Here is a ruddy duck:

And, it looks like the osprey are building up their nest:

Canal Mama duck lives! And, Fish Food Mama with 10 half-grown ducklings?

It appears that "Canal Mama" didn't fall victim to coyotes.  I found her in the canal this morning not far from where the blood and feathers were.  She still had four ducklings.

I think I saw Butterscotch flying around, but did not see her nearly 6 week old ducklings.  It's possible that she has moved to a new area or the ducklings are off on their own.

I saw this brood of ten half-grown ducklings and their mama, now a month old.  I see a few males, but mostly females, so far.  We shall see as they get older.

I think this might be Fish Food Mama as she's the only mother duck I know that can raise ten ducklings to this age at this lake.  Her face and bill markings are a little off.  but, when I saw her looking at me, later, she did seem a lot like Mama.  She also recognized me.

At the time I saw her, it looked like a fisherman in a boat might have been harassing her.  But, I think she was OK as she's one smart mama duck. I don't know if the harassment was intentional or he was just being a jerk.

I also found the black and white duck dumped a couple of weeks ago way across the lake hanging out with the mallards whom seem to like him.  No sign of the gray duck.  Also, Big Daddy has been missing for a long time.  If I don't see him by the end of the month, I may declare him deceased.  Pepper has also been missing for a week or two, too.  The crested female rouen is missing as well.  And, several Pekin ducks are missing, but I think they were all piled up in the reeds.

There's still a mystery as to which duck was caught by the coyotes.

A killdeer freaked me out, today

I didn't see Tiny or any of George's family today, but all the ducks that were in their area were doing well and are healthy. So, I went to the other side of Lake Murray near the ballfields.

The first thing I saw was mama Cooper's hawk circling around Cowles Bay, probably looking for blackbirds. She soared around several times, but flew off before I could get a photo of her. She settled in the M6 breeding area where I could hear some yellowlegs protesting. Not long after that, a quiet and fast flying, slate colored, bird flew over my head and disappeared about a mile or so away. It could have been the falcon, but I'm not sure.

Then, after I fed Cinnamon, Flycatcher's mama, and their boyfriends, I walked up the path to see if the falcon had killed anything lately. I was surprised to see this one lone killdeer on the path, standing absolutely still, staring at me.



I walked closer, talking to him, and he stood absolutely still until I was pretty much standing over him:



Then, as I bent down, my bags dropped too fast and he jumped a few feet away and deeted:



I got closer and kneeled down, but he flew away to where I saw another killdeer waiting. The other killdeer, from the back, looked like Firecracker:



Then, both began to behave normally and flew off to hide somewhere.

What freaked me out was that I have never gotten that close to a healthy adult killdeer before. I thought he was sick or injured, so I was almost going to pick him up. Even after that first time, he still wasn't afraid of me. I couldn't see the front of him and I couldn't exactly match him to any of the killdeer I have seen before at the lake. Possibly, he's a rehabilitated killdeer, raised in a cage and accustomed to human interaction.

He does look a little like Surprise, but I'm not sure unless I see him from the front and I didn't see his crest. Perhaps he was so freaked out by the falcon that he didn't want to fly off. Or maybe he was hurt by the falcon or the hawk and got away.

I hope he stays OK.

In the meantime, I did take a photo of some northern shovelers swimming with a grebe:

Drizzly, drizzy day. Ruddy ducks are here!

I didn't see much of the killdeer today, mostly the M6 mom in the big baseball field, at first, and then her son, Secret with her later. I could hear killdeer all over the lake, especially when the hawk flew by, but I didn't see much.

I saw some new creatures today, most notable yellow-headed blackbirds and ruddy ducks! I've never seen ruddy ducks at Lake Murray before. They were hard to get a photo of because they didn't come close to the shore. But, they were very cute!

Here is a shot of a female yellow-headed blackbird:



Here is a shot of a ruddy duck:



Here's a photo of a wood duck I saw. Sorry it's blurry. I tried to get one of the female, too, but she was too shy and all the photos I took of her were much more blurry:



There is a very young seagull chasing around the attacking the coots and sometimes the ducks. Most of the time, it left the ducks alone, but insisted on harassing the coots. He didn't seem like he wanted to hurt them, mostly just chase them around or peck at them (they pecked at him when he swooped over them). He seemed fine with the smaller birds. He also seemed really clumsy at takeoffs and landing, so I don't think he's been flying all that long. Why he was singling out the coots is news to me. I'm glad it's not duckling and chick season, but I worry about him bothering the killdeer, who were not around. He ignored the grackles.



Coots:

There is an overabundance of coots on the lake right now, more than ducks. I am surprised that predators aren't picking them off or they haven't gotten a lot of diseases.

I think this is the almost drowned coot who hangs out in a different area now. He is really friendly and often walks up to people. He looks like he still has a swelling on his left side, otherwise he seems fine.



Warning, graphic photo:

As I was leaving, I went over to where the coots liked to hang out under a tree and found what looked like to be a drowned coot, dead.



It looks like it might have had the same thing that happened to the other one. Either the hawk or the osprey is jumping down from the tree and landing on them. Last time, the hawk was chased away before he could finish the coot, but this time, it looks like it died without being eaten. Ospreys don't usually eat birds, especially ones this large (they will take small birds and chicks once in a while), so if it's the osprey's fault, it was an accident.

Still, the coots continued to feed under that tree while the water levels are high.

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.