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.

Tiny finds a mate, and his mom seems to approve

Tiny has a girlfriend

Tiny was seen with two other killdeer with him, both females. One was a small female whom I've never seen before, but seemed to be about his age. The other looked like his mom, Martha, whom I haven't seen in a while. Last time I saw Martha, she was a little sick, but seems a lot better now.

The new female, one I've never seen before

Mom, Martha, seems to approve of the young lady

Ducks:

I saw all the ducks except Snowball, the white mallard. I looked everywhere for him, all over the lake, but couldn't find any trace of him. A lot of the other mallards are missing, so it's entirely possible that he flew off somewhere else with them. There was a predator attack last weekend, but he was fine a couple of days ago and there has been no sign of predators attacking ducks since then. A northern harrier was also spotted today and they are known to take ducks, but I didn't find any evidence that any ducks were harmed recently. He may come back, eventually. I hope he went back to his home or was taken in by someone. I miss him already.

Curly was doing very well, even got some peas I gave him.

Tom was doing very well and I wanted to take his photo when I left Lake Murray, but he disappeared, probably sleeping in a tree across the lake.

I did get a photo of Big Daddy 3, one of the popular males in the park:



Also seen:

Some house finches:



Lots upon lots of white-crowned sparrows:



And, this egret was really concentrating on catching fish:



Bob1 was seen (I believe both "Bobs" are females, but not sure) I think she's molting:




I saw some flirting between two osprey, here is the male, the female is shyer:




And, these coots were wondering when they're going to get fed:

Love is in the air

"Killer", George's son

Today, was a warm day at Lake Murray and everyone had love on their mind, even the hawks were flirting.

Killer was seen with Digger who seems to be in love with him. He still doesn't seem too excited about her, but watches over and protects her.



In the ballfields, the M6 "Beautiful Dad" was doing nest scrapes with the mama of his three chicks, Digger, Shy and Secret. Even though she left him and had another chick (named Surprise) with another male, he still wants her for a mate.



They flirted and danced with each other all morning.






In another ballfield, I found three young killdeer, but they wouldn't turn around and look at me, so I couldn't tell who they are. I suspect that they're Shy, the male that likes her, Surprise and his friend, the Tiny look-a-like.

Also seen:

I also saw some long-billed dowitchers, too.



It looks like there's one adult and one juvenile. You can tell the difference between short-billed and long-billed dowitchers by listening to their voice. Here's the juvenile:



I saw two sandpipers, one came right up to me, the other didn't. But, I got a photo of the one that kept running away:




Ducky, aka the "lost" duckling, turned out to be a boy afterall. He is such a happy young duck, now three months old, and loves to hang around a certain sister-brother group:

"Ducky" is the one in front

I also saw a great egret, too:



And, an eared grebe in winter colors:

Chicks' debut or new fall arrivals?

Aren't I cute? Little female's breastband looks like Martha's

Today started out like any other day at the lake, except that I almost stepped right on George and Martha as I entered into the park. I didn't see them until I was only a few feet away and they took off without making a sound. They were both very calm. A little spotted sandpiper made his appearance, too, following me around as I looked at the ducks and fed them some peas.

Martha and a sandpiper early in the morning

It was strange, no crows, blackbirds and grackles were seen or heard in George and Martha's little part of the world.

At the ballfield, I initially found 7 killdeer and then went to go look at the ducks in Del Cerro Bay. I saw two juvenile Cooper's hawks there. The little duckling was there and swimming right towards the hawks, but I think he ended up hiding in or near some reeds, so I think he was safe for the day. The grackles were spending the day on Del Cerro Point as well as near Cowles point, too. Very few grackles seen today. I the hawks are putting some pressure on them to leave the area.

Back at the ballpark, the second time I came around, I found ten killdeer there. One killdeer was calling on Cowles Point, but then flew over into the ballfield. When I looked, there seemed to be one or two possible small adults, maybe recently fledged chicks. I couldn't be sure as it's also getting close to having fall arrivals migrating into the area. It's still early, but they could start arriving at any time.

One of the small ones was a slim male, very dark in color.


The other small one might be a female.



When I went back to George and Martha's "home", I heard the sounds of territorial killdeer calls. George and Martha were on one side of the bay and two other killdeers were on the other. A third killdeer, a male, may have also been near the other two. George flew off when I got too close and made loud territorial calls all over his territory, even on the north side. Martha flew off and landed close to the invading couple and got into an argument with the invading male.

I went around to the other side and George had returned. I could see George and Martha totally puffed up and angry, mostly directing their anger mostly towards a male with a white feather on his back. I originally thought it was M4 (Grandpa killdeer), but his breast band was different than this one. There also was a small, cute, adorable little female killdeer who didn't seem to be interested in fighting at all. I thought I saw Martha make an aggressive move towards her, but if she did, she wasn't serious. Most of the attention was on Whitefeather, the large adult male. And, Whitefeather's attention was divided between Martha and George and the little pale-colored female.

George "dips" while Whitefeather goes around to confront him. The little female is on the right.

George (on rock) Martha (Left front) and Whitefeather (Left behind). All puffed up.

The little female seemed more interested in what I was doing and started to watch me take pictures of her. She didn't seem afraid of me at all, but cautious. Eventually, she pretty much walked right up to me, almost unafraid. I was hoping that this was Firecracker, the little female chick whom I thought was dead almost five weeks ago. She would be about 38 or 39 days old now, the right time for a killdeer chick to make her appearance into the open world and into killdeer society.

The little female on the left starts to come up to me while Whitefeather watches her and George and Martha watch him

Female chicks almost immediately get courted by adult males when they come out into the open. It's possible that mom and dad were defending her as she is not full grown for another two weeks. It also explained the arrival of another full-grown male on the scene, interested in all the hub-bub. I don't think that other male is Tiny or Killer, Firecracker's brothers, but I will have to get a better look to see next time.

However, this female is very pale and that often indicates that she may be an older female and not a chick. I've noticed that younger killdeer seem to be darker brown than the older ones and they get paler as they get older. But, I haven't confirmed that theory, yet. I have noticed that George, who used to be golden brown has started to get paler over the last year, especially at the base of some of his feathers. But, her color is mostly evenly spread throughout her body and that might indicate youth.

The little female passes within a couple feet of me. She has algae in her mouth

The male who was interested in this female began to become concerned for her as she walked away and started following with Martha following behind. George continued to stand on a rock and proclaim his territory until another human being walked by and scared them away.

George demands that everyone come back and fight with him

If this little female is Firecracker, her brothers may make their appearance next.