Ducky is back and another male challenges George's son

Killer (the killdeer) and Digger

Today, Killer had another challenger for Digger, his mate. Digger seemed curious, but mostly stood allied with Killer.

I looked though my killdeer records and I don't think I've seen this male before.



The two of them, Killer and Digger, chase him off.



Standing united.





The sandpiper doesn't care, just keeps feeding.



The challenger didn't seem very serious about fighting, but kept pestering the female nontheless.

Ducks

Ducky is back! Here he is getting food this morning. Still working on his molt and getting his green head. He gets pecked a lot by the other males:



Here is his friend who is further along in his molt and has gotten his drake feather. I think he's about 18 weeks old now:



I like this runner-Cayuga mix, but she's afraid of me:



This is Bill's favorite, calls him the baby duck. I think he might be a bantam white mallard drake:




I think I saw Sir Francis Drake, the mallard who had his foot bound by fishing line for over a year. I didn't take a photo of him, but it appears that his foot may have totally healed up back to normal. I'm not sure if he's the one I saw or not, but he has the same bill marking as Sir Francis.

I saw the pretty gadwalls, here's the male (in the back) with some mallard ducks:



These two gadwalls got jumped on by the juvenile seagull who was probably just playing with them:



After he jumped on them, they stood up and flapped their wings:



Also seen:

(Warning, photo may bother some people)
This vulture was eating the coot that died a couple of weeks ago. He washed up in the area a few days ago and the vultures carried him away to this spot. The seagull got to eat, too.



The spotted sandpiper on the southern side of the parking lot (near Alvarado bay) is getting his spots back:



Here's the other sandpiper on the northern side of the parking lot (near Padre bay):



And, here's a juvenile male red-winged blackbird:



It's getting harder to identify birds lately as they are either in their juvenile or winter plumage!

Teenage killdeers in love

Killer the killdeer in the morning

The first thing I saw when I arrived was Killer (George's son) and Shy (M6 dad's daughter from across the lake) all alone near the fence, but they flew away to their family. While I was at the fence, I checked to see if George and Martha were hiding young chicks behind there, but saw nothing. Nor did either parent get upset that I was over there, so there may not be any more chicks around.

Killer and Shy

The lake level is really low and the entire family plus Shy and her dad were there. George and the M6 dad were always at it. One time, they got up and flew around, chasing each other. They flew right at a Cooper's hawk trying to catch a dove or pigeon. The other five killdeers on the ground did alarm calls as soon as they saw the hawks, all in unison. But, the adult males continued flying around, finally landing and thus ending the alarm calls.

George, yelling at the M6 dad

The M6 dad puffs up as he passes Killer to reach his daughter

Later, the M6 dad and Shy went to the other side of the parking lot. Killer followed, but kept his distance. But, all the other killdeer began flying around to different points of the lake, calling and fighting. Killer stayed behind and when I approached him, he did a half-broken wing act for an unknown reason. It looks like he still hasn't gotten all his adult display feathers.

Killer trying to do a broken wing act, lacks some display tail feathers

Many of the killdeer were flying to areas where I don't usually see them. One area is usually full of ducks, but there were none this time. I noticed a killdeer, I think it might have been George, flew there before joining the others at different points of the lake. The only killdeer at the ballfields was the little baby 8 week old, Surprise.

All four Cooper's hawks were very busy and making the killdeer very nervous. I think the hawks were having a hard time catching anything, probably due to the low water levels and the lack of doves. The adult male Cooper's hawk attacked an osprey trying to get dinner. I, at first, thought the osprey was another regular hawk and was scared for the killdeer when it swooped close to them. But, ospreys eat almost totally fish. They may take a chick or egg if they come across one and possibly some snails and slugs, but they are no treat to adult birds or mammals.

The low water levels must be making all the birds cranky. The Chinese gander, who has bitten me several times, but not seriously or often, decided to grab my calf and not let go! He was in a rage and I don't know why. I've been trying to be his friend for months, but he just won't turn around.

Also seen:

Besides the osprey, whom I couldn't get a photo of, I found the two spotted sandpipers in an odd spot of the lake.



And, two Western seagulls who seem to be either courting or doing territorial displays: