Juvenile Cooper's Hawks

Today was not a great picture day.  Many of the animals and birds were either hiding, too far away, or obscured.  I did get a couple of photos of Big Mama's two fledglings.

Here is the little male, he's very curious and checks out everything around him:

His big sister is a little shy and when she saw me nearby, she began screaming for mama.  But, before that, she tried to catch a squirrel.  I don't know what it is about juvenile female Cooper's hawks and squirrels, but they all seem to want to catch them, unlike the juvenile males:

I hope I never see one of these guys catch a killdeer there, that would devastate me.  But, I know it's a matter of time that I will see it.

Here is a great egret nearby.  It's a little early in the year for them to be back here:

And, finally, Mama's Little Weakling.  She's looking more and more like her mother.

The four little ducklings, seen yesterday, are all doing well.  Mama left them alone for a few minutes, but one duckling began to scream for her and she came back. She then led them to a place where they could eat.  When she flew over them, one duckling shot out from the group like lightning, but came back when he saw it was his mom and not a gull.   I was worried because a juvenile red-tailed hawk was in the area and I thought he caught the mom.  But, all is good as far as I know.

And, Sweetie, Indy, and the other two brothers were all seen doing well, too.  I don't know what happened to the other female or Fish Food Mama, today.  Sweetie is starting to get her big girl duck voice.   Neo was not seen at all today.

Pollux was in the ballfield with his dad, no sign of Miracle and her little chick.

Cloudy morning

Around May and June in San Diego, the desert heats up and draws in clouds from over the ocean.  As the inland areas get warmer, the clouds get stronger, especially if there is any kind of front nearby.  On some days, the coast doesn't clear up at all.  Inland, like at Lake Murray, the clouds may dissipate around mid to late morning.  So, many of the photos I take were taken when it was pretty dark out, like this morning.

Here is a photo of what I think might be Miracle. I didn't see Killer Jr., but if there's a nest nearby, he may be on it.  I think I saw her during a shift change.  Males tend to sit on nests at night, females during the day.

Pepper has turned really dark and his wing seems better.  But, he is afraid of me for some reason and never lets me get too close to take a picture of him.

It took me a long time, but I finally found Neo.  I didn't get a photo of him stretching out his wing with all his new pins on them.  He looks great.

Here he is with his mom and probable dad.  Unfortunately, the male won't let Neo get anywhere close to his mom, whom he is imprinted on.

Fish Food Mama was seen with her five ducklings.  Another female seemed really interested in them as well, I think it was Peaches, the older sister of all these little guys.  I haven't seen Peaches with any eggs or ducklings this year.  

There now appears to be three males and two females in this group of ducklings.

This is Fish Food Mama's mate.  I've never seen him get mean to any of the ducklings and they seem to accept him as a family member.

This little male's bill coloring is changing in a weird, patchy way.

Independent duckling:

Mama and one of her ducklings:

A word about Hurt Wing:

I saw Hurt Wing a few days ago after being absent a long time.  Her wing looked a lot better and, except for   her pinion joint seeming to still have some damage, you wouldn't know he had a hurt or damaged wing.  However, since she can't fly away as well from the boys, her hip and leg was hurt, probably during rough mating.  So, now she can't really walk.  In the water, she often holds her leg up, but you wouldn't know she was hurt if you see her swimming.  I don't like to interfere with the wild ducks unless something happened to them that was human-caused or influenced.  Or, they are severely and grossly injured.  I'm still hoping it will get better with her and the males will leave her alone..