Snow goose still at Chollas Lake

Went to Chollas Lake to count birds and found that the snow goose was still there.

Here she is:

Chollas Lake has a lot of domestic fowl.  Here's my boy, Arrowhead:

I think this might be Mylee, the gosling from a couple of years ago:

Pretty muscovy girl:

Handsome muscovy boy:

Birdy update

I have been busy lately, so sorry I haven't updated in over a week.

We had some cold days and rain lately. Just before the cold snap, Tom didn't look as good as he usually does. His chest was a little caved in, he's lost weight and one of his eyes was runny.



However, a few days later, he looked a lot better. It's suspected that eating bread and junk food may be causing him some issues. Lately, there has been less people at the lake feeding the birds and that could be why he got better.

Killer and Digger haven't been in the feeding area lately, but I did hear them flying over the water treatment plant. On the other side of the lake, the new M4 male has been battling it out for his territory. I think I've seen Shy and Firecracker in the area, but am not certain.



At my home, the pool phoebe hasn't been around much since around the time the rain stopped. A few days ago, he was seen sitting on the TV antenna with his dad who was doing territorial calls. I don't know if he moved somewhere else or something happened to him:



Also seen: Curly, who is doing very well. And, the sick seagull looked like he was on his way to recovery. And, of course, Big Daddy, Cinnamon, the chocolate ducks, Big Boi and the domestic posse are all doing well. But, that new cayuga female has not been seen in a few days.

And, I finally got a photo of one of the moorhens at Lake Murray! I have been trying for a while, but they would scurry away by the time I got my camera out:

Ducks and Killdeer at Sunset

George (right) and Martha (left)

I decided I needed a killdeer break and went to the lake at sunset. Killdeer make me feel like everything's going to be OK because so many things want to eat and harm them, but they almost always seem to survive.

George and Martha were in the feeding area without Tiny. However, he was where he could see everything and, once in a while, you could hear him deet or answer his parent's deets/alarms.

Martha at Sunset with the ducks:



George at Sunset with ducks, too:



Here's Ducky and his friends coming up to check me out:



Tom, the muscovy duck, says hello and asks me where the food is:

No killdeer, so my favorite ducks

The lake level keeps getting higher, so I see no signs of the killdeer at all, except for one that I think I saw flying around on the western side of the lake.

So, here are some photos of my favorite ducks:

I know there's exposure problems with this photo, but I thought it was a nice interaction between Oreo and Big Boy. Big Boy is missing half of one of his feet, but I never noticed until now. He's been hiding it by not getting out of the water unless he feels safe.



Here's a photo of a cute female wood duck scratching herself on the head:



The crested duck has taken an interest in Oreo and flirted with her while Latte (BigDaddy2), her childhood friend, was somewhere else:



And, here is Tom rooting around in the mud showing his green shine:



And, a gadwall swimming in the shade with the domestic ducks:


In other news, "Jumpy" one of the juvenile seagulls that liked to jump on the coots has died. He was very sick when I last saw him several weeks ago and it looked like his leg was hurt bad. His leg was swollen at his death, but not broken. I don't even think he was 6 months old, yet.

Also, there's a pair of feral geese that are going to make it hard for me to visit the M4 killdeer territory, I think. They don't like anyone who they think are fishermen/women and attack or act aggressively towards people they aren't sure of. Most of the time, they are no problem for me, but sometimes they are and I don't want to get hurt. They are also aggressive towards all the other ducks/birds, too. I don't think they're a pair, but we shall see if one lays eggs. That would explain a lot.

Tom Muscovy and a Sunday at the lake

I went to the lake today, but only for a few minutes while I got a video of Tom and the injured coot eating their breakfast. I didn't see any killdeer and the hawk was busy fending off some mockingbirds outside the lake area.

Tiny becomes a flirt

2 juveniles, I think it's Tiny and Digger

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera yesterday, but Tiny was flirting, very heavily, with the two female chicks from across the lake. Shy was not that interested and Digger didn't seem overly excited, either.

Digger

Martha

Today, when I brought my camera, it was too dark to get decent photos. I saw George and the entire family and Digger in Alvarado Bay at Lake Murray. Shy was across the lake and her dad was on the shore of Padre Bay giving alarm calls to his girl. I didn't get a photo of him as he flew away. Soon after he flew away, his little daughter came over calling for him, but flew back to her spot. The killdeer seem really nervous lately, possibly due to it being busy and the males being anxious about their prospective mates.

Also seen:

Here's George standing with a spotted sandpiper wandering behind him. George acted like he was going to attack the smaller bird, at first, but backed off.

George and a sandpiper

Duckies!

Female Chocolate (Chocolate 2) was seen today. Here she is standing straight up with her runner self. I think she has the same father as Chocolate 1, but different mother.



Here's a cute little white duck, probably a small Pekin or a call duck. It's smaller than the coots.




A gentleman named Bill comes to feed the birds at the lake and leaves his bag on the ground, sometimes. Here are some ducks eating right out of his bags.

That's Tom, the Muscovy duck in the photo. He's a sweetie. Some kids came along later and threw bread at him, but it didn't hurt. He was wagging his tail like crazy in a happy way, but I think the kids were scared of him or something. I told them about how bad bread is for ducks, but that doesn't stop anyone from feeding it to the ducks. I tried to tell them that Tom liked them because he was wagging his tail. The kids did leave him alone, though, after a few minutes. I love that old duck, would be sad if anyone hurt him. I wish I could take him home.


Bill feeds them cracked corn and wild bird feed, mostly.

Bread isn't good for ducks. There's one young duck that eats too much of it and then he can't walk or swim well afterward. He ate too much today when a family visited the lake and almost couldn't move at all and looked sick afterward. He gets better after a few days and it's better than the last time he over-ate, but it's still a problem. I am considering taking him to a vet or talking to a wildlife rehabber if this continues.

Nice warm day

Now that fall is here, we have summer, so it was a nice morning.

When I arrived, it was still a little dark and the killdeers were sleeping with their little heads tucked in (at least a couple of them were). I couldn't get a photo of that, though.

It's getting hard for me to keep track of all the different killdeer because they're all still flying around and mixing up. I didn't see Martha today, but I suspect that she is around somewhere.

I first saw George, the M6 male, Killer (George's son) and Shy (the M6's daughter) all hanging out. They flew away and I found Killer by himself near where he had first hatched.

Shy, the chick from across the lake

I think this is the M6 (Shy's) dad and Killer

So many killdeer flying around.

Later, I think I found George with an unknown juvenile, probably Tiny, and Firecracker. Four or five other killdeer where hanging around with them, too, but they got scared off by me and flew away.

George and an unknown juvenile, probably Tiny

Firecracker with her duck friends

Also seen:

I saw four spotted sandpipers together, but didn't get a good photo of them as they flew off while I was setting up my tripod.

I also saw this gull:



A blue heron:



And a snowy egret:



Here is Tom, the Muscovy duck, going for a swim. He seemed to be feeling good today and even came up when I called him, but I didn't have any food at that time.