Least Tern, Picture of the Day 05/24/16

Today's picture of the day is of a least tern that was flying around at the Tijuana River Natural Estuarine Research Reserve down by the border near Imperial Beach. I took this on International Migratory Bird Day on May 14th. The least terns nest in this area and this adult was looking for small fish in the river area. It was a cloudy day.

Update on the ducklings in the last post: Unfortunately, they were all gone within a couple of days. 

Update on Troublemaker and a few photos of the anchovy feeding frenzy

At Lake Murray, there's been a flood of new baby ducks.  Unfortunately, most, if not all of them, don't make it much more than a week.  

Earlier this week, I saw the mama with the last of her ducklings; the one that was brutally attacked.  His sibling was gone.  This guy was 10 days old when this photo was taken.  I did not see her or the duckling today.  I'm hoping she moved him on to a safer area, but I don't have hope for him.

 Troublemaker is starting to grow just a bit.  But, something is definitely wrong with him (and, yes, he is definitely a male):

It's been about 6 weeks since I first met him and he was at least 2-3 weeks old at that time.  So, he should be about 8-10 weeks old now.  But, he looks and acts like a 5-6 week old.  His siblings are normal for 8-10 weeks old.  So, Troublemaker may actually be the same age as his siblings, but behind on development.

Mom keeps a good eye on him, but she's also trying to encourage the others to fly and can't wait for Troublemaker to catch up to them.

His best friend is his brother, seen here at the bottom right.  The one at the top is an adult male.  He gets along well with other ducks and is smart enough to know to avoid the large males.

On Monday, I went to Imperial Beach where they were having a hug anchovy visitation.  Lots of birds were there.  I saw one juvenile snowy plover, whom I only got a blurry photo of, so I'm not posting it.  Here is his dad who ran up to me to distract me from his chick.  A female was also seen in the area.

Lots of fun willets, many still in breeding plumage:

Pelicans diving for their favorite fish, anchovies:

But, the big spectacle was the tens of thousands of shearwaters flying by the shoreline for hours.  It was like the passenger pigeons where they just kept on coming.  I saw that they were flying in a huge circle.  Thousands and thousands of birds continuously streaming by..  Everyone that saw them was amazed.

Curlews and a very light godwit

I was at the Tijuana Natural Estuarine Research Reserve and there were a lot of long-billed curlews.

There were also some whimbrels and willets there, too, and some northern harriers.

But, I saw this very light marbled godwit there, too.

It's definitely a marbled godwit because I can see the pattern on its back.  I think it might be a girl.

Tijuana River Estuary

Today, I took a bird walk down to the Tijuana River Natural Esturarine Research Reserve.

We saw several northern harriers, males and females.  Here's a couple pictures of a female:

Northern Harrier Female

Northern Harrier Female

There was also a white-tailed kite, but it was too far away to get a good photo of.

We also saw some curlews.

Long Billed Curlew

Long Billed Curlew

Curlews and Willets

A light-footed clapper rail came out into the sunlight.

Light-footed clapper rail

Some teal and ducks:

Green-winged teal

Mallards

Yellow-crowned night heron

Today was international migratory bird day today, so I went down to the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve to check out the festivities there. When I was there, I saw a yellow-crowned night heron--very rare in San Diego. I thought I would share the photos here, first: