Little lost loon

Yesterday, while I was counting birds at the lake, I came across this lost juvenile Pacific loon.

He seemed pretty relaxed, mostly grooming himself.

I've seen common loons at this lake (Lake Murray) before, but not Pacific loons.  During the winter, Pacific loons live near the ocean.  Later, someone saw an adult at the same lake.  I think the two might be calling to each other.  The other loon was quite a distance away from this baby. They might have arrived together.

I didn't take many other pictures that day because I was busy counting.  but, I added this one of a snowy egret chasing small fish around.  It's an awful lot of energy to spend on catching such small prey.

Bigboi trouble and domestic duck update

It's been a while since I was at Lake Murray and I wanted to check up on the two female buff ducks.  One of the females had a swollen belly.  When I didn't see her, I figured she died.

Here is her skinny sister.

The runner duck was walking around protecting her:

I didn't see Bigboi, but I wasn't that worried because he often goes off on his own and figured that the old duck would be OK.  When I walked away, the runner duck ran over to a concrete wall next to the sidewalk and kept looking over into these weeds.  I could see the weeds moving around, so I went to check.  It was then that I heard a male duck quack and could see Bigboi stuck between the weeds and the wall:

I grabbed him and pulled him out.  He didn't even thank me and ran over to the skinny blonde duck.  The runner duck followed him.  He seemed fine.  I was afraid I grabbed him the wrong way.  He was pretty scared when I grabbed him.

Later, I found the duck with the swollen belly.  She didn't look at me.  Apparently, she was hiding in the reeds either to hide from the males, or to lay eggs.  She promptly disappeared back in the reeds.  Apparently, Bigboi was stuck in the reeds after trying to get to her.

The crested runner mated with the skinny duck and, afterwards, all the males got together to talk about it:

There were two wigeons nearby, too:

Here's Baby Blue and a green heron:

This green heron was clucking around, obviously upset about something:

This is my spot!

I think he was upset with two other herons feeding in the same area and he was the smallest.  The biggest, a great blue heron, flew off, but a smaller snowy egret stayed behind.

No, it's MY spot!

First photos with a new camera

I finally got a new camera today and I went out and took my first photos and videos.  Nothing special, just a few random shots:

Mallard ducks and a grackle:

Gulls at the boat docks at Lake Murray:

Snowy Egret:

Pied-billed grebe with a fish:

One of the newly dumped female buff ducks preening:

Her sister was hanging out with the male buff duck:

More mallards:

Baby Blue:

Jill:

The big duck flock:

The ruddy ducks are finally back:

And, a video of Jill.  For some reason, the sound doesn't come through:.  

Snowie's baby continues

Snowie's baby is 4 weeks old today, but still looks like a 10 day old, just a little larger and a bit fatter.  He copies everything his mother does almost exactly. I've noticed that Snowie also does weird things with her eyes, so that might be where he got it from.  But, he's the boss of the two and when he wants to go somewhere else, he will peep for his mother to follow and she does.

There is only one baby coot left, probably the youngest of the three.  I'm betting the other two probably went off on their own.

There was a blue heron watching the baby coot and duckling who didn't even seem to notice him.  He doesn't like me, so he left the area, probably to hunt squirrels somewhere.

Pepper is in his eclipse plumage and looks so beautiful.  For those who don't know, Pepper is Bigboi the Cayuga's son.  His other half was a wild mallard.  He used to be able to fly until he broke his wing when he was about 7 or 8 months old.

I managed to photograph a Bewick's wren:

And, there was a pair of snowy egrets foraging together, but I didn't get a good photo of the two together.

I heard the killdeer near the golf course and I think it might be Squeak and Pollux with youngsters.

Where is Spoonface?

I didn't take many photos today, but I am beginning to worry about Spoonface (Bossy).  I haven't seen him in almost a week.  If he could fly, I would feel better.  He has gone missing before, I hope he shows up again.

Today's photos include a couple of shy wigeons:

And, a snowy egret, close up.

Lake Update

I thought I would check on the birds at the lake and everything is still the same, it seems. Tiny is still staying with the new female and his mom, Martha. Martha is getting along with the new female pretty well, except she does get a little mean sometimes.

Tiny plays games with his new mate

Mom is still not sure if she approves

Tom, the muscovy, tells vultures: "I'm not dead!"

Tom, the big, black, muscovy duck at Lake Murray was having his daily nap across the bay from where he usually visits me early in the morning. Some vultures started to surround him, but he woke up and probably began a hiss-fest at them. I could see him moving around, but couldn't hear him. The vultures then left him alone. Sometimes, vultures will attack animals who are not yet dead, but would be too weak to defend themselves. Tom needs to get more lively. He's old, can't see well and, I think, might have some kind of arthritis, but he's not dead. It's possible that he didn't react fast enough because he couldn't see them very well. But, if he was attacked, he would be more than capable of fighting them off.

"I'm not dead!" Tom says (that's his third eyelid over his eye, shielding from the sun)

I wonder if that happens to Tom a lot nowadays.

Ducky, the "lost" duckling is still around and still with all his duckling-hood friends.



I also saw a couple of red-head ducks, a male and a female:

Male (with coot)

Female

The egret was still very much in concentration. I never saw him catch anything, though, but he sure was patient:



A couple of ducks have not be seen in a while since Bill stopped feeding them. Chocolate, the large mallard-rouen-runner mix is missing, but may be with her buddies somewhere else on the lake. When she's on the water, it's a little harder distinguishing her from the other ducks at a distance. She can't fly very much, but she made it all the way to six months old, so she's probably fine. Also, Snowball, the white mallard, hasn't been seen in a week. Either he was captured or flew off with his buddies. If he flew off, he may be back.

Lots of seagulls today! There are people bringing large rolls of bread and feeding them to all the birds. I heard someone complain that there were too many seagulls, but I never saw them until now. They may be there because of all the bread still being fed to them. Also, some of them looked like ring-billed gulls who visit here in the winter.



And, finally, here's a little video I took of all the geese and ducks:

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.