Phoebes are everywhere!

Phoebe on my TV antenna

I've been noticing a lot of black phoebes in my neighborhood. But, now, we have one that likes to live near my pool! He's also a really loud caller/singer, too and has been aggressive with the finches. I think he's a juvenile and may be the offspring of the phoebe that lives near the building next door.

I couldn't get a photo of it at the pool, so I got a couple of photos of it on the TV antenna.

I've been noticing a lot of black phoebe birds in this neighborhood.

Here he is with a hummingbird who came to check him out:



The Lake Murray Killdeers:

The killdeers at Lake Murray are going nuts! They've been flying around to different areas of the lake, fighting and calling. Killer (George's son) and Shy (a grown chick from across the lake) have been flirting heavily with each other, I even saw Killer do a nest scrape and she inspected it. I think she wants to nest at Padre Point, but I don't know if she's old enough to lay eggs, yet. George and Shy's dad constantly argue with each other, however, George is very tolerant of his grown son being around. It's quite a difference between how he acts with his sons and how he acts with the M6 Dad.

In the "chick" area beyond the fenced area, something strange was going on. It sounded like two killdeer were being attacked by a predator. Other birds even flew out, I think they were mockingbirds. I didn't see any predators, but, one killdeer was "walloping" another one and giving it severe "leave us alone" calls. It may mean that there are still baby, flightless chicks there and Martha may have been trying to keep a strange killdeer away from them. We shall see. Hopefully, if there are babies there, they're alright. I don't hear any baby killdeer peeps. Perhaps it was Martha chasing a male away from her daughter.

All the killdeer are mixed up, it's hard to keep track of where each one is and I'm not going around the lake trying to find them.

Little Male very nervous and more on the ducklings

M2 was spending time in Little Male's territory. He looks a lot like Little Male and I wonder if they're related, perhaps M2 is an older brother or even his father. But, one way that I can tell the difference is that M2 has gotten so extremely calm and doesn't yell hardly at all. He has seemed to learn that if he's quiet and still, no one will bother him.

M2 spending time in Little Male's feeding area. I don't know what that object is on the right. I thought it was a corn cob, but it may be the top of a plant. The lake is low now and all kinds of things float up.

Little Male was being totally uncooperative with getting his picture taken. He started screaming way before I could see him and wouldn't let me get anywhere near. He was extremely nervous, probably because of another killdeer being nearby. I think he had a bad fight experience and ever since then, he has been terrible with his nervousness and screaming. I would think he would be used to people right now as he spends a lot of time in a very busy area. He screamed so much that M2 came over an answered his call. M2 didn't do a fight call, but another chirp-beep in answer to Little Male's call. He landed nearby and Little Male flew near him. I wondered if a fight was going to take place, but a nearby crow decided he had enough of the screaming and chased M1 away to the other side of the bay. Over there, people were walking around and he began screaming at them, too.

Little Male wants me to stay far, far away. He won't let me take his picture from the front.

M2, who was being quiet, was completely ignored by the crow.

M8 could be heard and not seen, I didn't feel like chasing him. Another killdeer was hanging out on one of the baseball fields, which was being mowed. Whatever killdeer that was over there was pretty upset about that lawnmower. M4's voice is very raspy, but he has actually gotten calmer. He lets me approach him pretty close now. No sign of any females, but females can be very quiet and you can pass by them without knowing they're there sometimes. You have to watch the males to see if they act more nervous than normal.

The ducklings that almost became hawk food have made it to four days old. They've doubled in size, but are very tiny, still. A fish nibbled on them and they ran straight to mama. But, still, they go off on their own and disobey mom, so they have a high chance of being eaten by a fish. Luckily, they get fed by people near the shore where they're at, so they don't have to cross the water to get food.

The "Hawk Food" ducklings, four day old

The other three older ducklings that were almost fish food were not seen, but are probably OK. They are three weeks old now and usually when they get to that age, they're chances of making it to being full grown are pretty good..

Lots of baby coots all over, too. A large bird, either a dark colored eagle or a vulture, was picking off the really young babies in nests on top of the fallen reeds. But, a lot of them have made it to almost full-grown status.

A baby coot, almost fully grown. Are they called chicks or cooties?

Lake Update

I visited Lake Murray while it was still pretty dark, so my photos didn't come out exactly as I planned. But, it seems that the killdeer have dispersed back to their own territories.

M2 was all alone. I took a couple of photos of him using flash and I think I dazed him. But, he seemed fine after a moment and continued eating the flies along the shore. The flash made his eye turn white.



Little Male is doing OK, but still a little high strung. I don't think he knows how to use his signals correctly and gets them mixed up.

M4 is fine, he has part of his voice back, but still pretty raspy.

The last I saw these three ducklings, they were just about to be fish food. But, they're two weeks old now and getting big.



I found this male in M8's territory. I've never seen him before. Like M4, he has a lot of pale and/or white feathers on one side of his body. I'm still taking this to possibly mean that he might be an older killdeer, but it could just be a variation in killdeer feather colors. Sorry the photo is fuzzy, he didn't give me many chances to get a good one.



I swore I heard a killdeer in this area, but thought my ears were playing tricks on me. This time, I checked and there he was. I also thought I heard the sounds of killdeer chicks squeaking and scrumbling under some nearby brush, but I didn't search them out. This male didn't do a broken wing act or anything else that would indicate that there was a nest or chicks are nearby, so it might have been a mouse or squirrel making that noise. That kind of response is probably automatic with killdeer and I don't know if they can totally control it. However, this killdeer may have been so habituated to people that he had learned that just flying away was enough to get humans to leave the area.

Where's the Phoebe Nest?

I hear a constant peeping right above my apartment and the constant call of a phoebe nearby, but I don't see any nests. Phoebes like to nest on the edges of buildings near overhangs and the like. Sorta using the building like a cliff. I do see the Phoebe flittering around the building next door, but I haven't found any nests. I hear a constant "peep" "peep" all day long. Also, there is a concentration of bird excrement in one area near a tree, but I still see no nest, phoebe or otherwise. I'm guessing, also, there's a house finch nest (or several) nearby, too.

Black phoebe near my home

I was working on some artwork and I noticed three phoebes playing around at the building next door. Two of them were males that were fighting a little, but one was a female. Here is a photo of one of the males.

I guess these guys like berries, too, I found out.

Here's the house finch again

Here's the house finch that resides on my antenna:



And here's a photo with his friend, a hummingbird.

House Finch on My Antenna

When I first moved into my building, there was a huge ficus tree in the courtyard that all the sparrows used to nest and live in. Then, it was cut down due to the fact that it was ruining the plumbing and affecting the elevator in the building. Since then, I have noticed that the sparrows have pretty much moved on, not only in this building, but the whole neighborhoods. Instead, the house finches have taken over.

During the last few years, I have really begun to notice their song, especially in the morning. Just recently, I found one really loud male who likes to sing on top of my building's TV antenna. I hear his song every morning and during the day. I think I've seen him try to show prospective females some nesting spots inside the building or in the trees behind the building.

He is singing right now as I write this. This is what he looks like from my apartment.