Orange-crowned warbler and one less Pekin

I think this is an orange-crowned warbler, one of the birds I know is always at Lake Murray, but I rarely see.  He was hopping around on this fence.  Didn't seem shy at all.

Big Mama Cooper's Hawk didn't seem to mind me taking her picture, either, even with the flash going.  Later, I found a half-eaten dead coot in the area.  It's unusual for her not to eat her entire kill, but she may have been disturbed by people walking by.

This is Bumblefoot and her mate.  She's very vocal:

And, she loves her mate.  Here she is saying "I love you" by doing head bobbing at him. She was actually walking better today.

Big Daddy thought I had some food, but I didn't:

Today, the black Swedish duck known as Oreo was by himself.  His friend, Aflac, was found dead and mostly eaten and it looks like raccoons got him and dragged him to the reeds near where they sleep.  Oreo was acting fairly normally, but when his flock containing Cinnamon and her boyfriends moved to another area, he stayed behind.  He's perhaps hoping his friend will "wake up" or show up again and, then, they will go together.

Here's a photo taken a couple of weeks after they arrived in late March/early April, 2011:

Cinnamon and her boyfriends (including Stubby) are OK, but I worry that the predator will be back for the rest of the ducks.

New Year's Shorebird Counting

This is the third year I've done shorebird counting on New Year's day at the San Diego South Bay.  This year, I went at a rising tide early in the morning.  The weather was mostly cloudy, but not foggy like last year.  I also didn't walk as far as usual because I was carrying a scope and tripod (which I dropped once, but it was OK).

**Yes, I know that some of the photos say "2012" on it.  I was watermarking them and my fingers aren't used to typing 2013, so several of them were mismarked, but I didn't want to go back and change them.

Willets and godwits were plentiful.  Though I saw many willets socializing with individual godwits, I did not see the special willet-godwit pair that I've seen the last two years.

This godwit was itchy:

I saw hundreds of western sandpipers, but only about a dozen least sandpipers:

Lots and lots of them:

 A good mess of northern pintails, too (and a ton of wigeons which I didn't get any good photos of):

In this next photo, though it's hard to see are several snowy egrets, a reddish egret, Bonaparte's gull, and two types of merganser.  I didn't even know I got a picture of the reddish egret or the mergansers when I took this photo.

These willets, godwits, and dowitchers were all feeding peacefully here:

When a Cooper's hawk went on the attack and tried to attack some coots and other birds along the shore.

The willets and the black-bellied plovers nearby made sure they sounded the alarm until she was gone:

A few greater yellowlegs were around:

One friendly killdeer.  I think I only saw 5 of the 30 I usually see there:

An unusual sight, a white pelican.  They are usually inland freshwater birds:

And, hundreds of black brant.

At lot of them:

Seriously, a lot:

And, lots of eared grebes, too.

Oceanside Christmas Bird Count

Today, I went to the Buena Vista Lagoon in Oceanside/Carlsbad for their Christmas Bird Count.  Unfortunately, most of the birds were too far to get good photos of.

This western grebe did come up close, though:

There wasn't anything inherently unusual during this count, but I did see a black and white warbler.  Someone else saw a Wilson's warbler, too.  I also saw a couple of Heermann's gulls.

Lesser goldfinches and sick ducks

Early Christmas morning brought lesser goldfinches.  This male wasn't afraid of me at all:

These females weren't afraid of me either, until the sunshade on my camera fell off and they flew away, but the male stayed and called for them.

This duck has a very cute bill.  I've never seen a bill marked like that.  I think she's a young duck.  I was sitting down and she walked right behind me and chattered away.

For the last few days, I've been getting help for this crested pekin female.  I was told she might have ascites, or water on the belly.  The first day I saw her in trouble, she was very sleepy and looked sick.

When I saw her yesterday, she looked a bit better, but was still struggling.  I did see her run out of the water when someone brought some food.  However, someone said she suddenly started limping and then collapsed on her belly and scooted herself back into the water.  When I saw her, she was acting like something was wrong with her legs, but got better as she continued swimming.  She also put her wings and tail back into normal position for a moment.

If it's ascites, she will NOT get better and will die within days.  If it is not, then I don't know.

Update:  It took me a while to get some help for her, but she was rescued on 12/29!  She is said to be extremely thin, but other than something being wrong with her leg, she seems to be OK.

Across the lake from that duck, I thought that this female on the left had a bad bumble on her foot.  If she does, she may also die from that and, perhaps, infect the other ducks.  That's her mate on the right:

Someone said that might not be a bumble, but a callous.  It's making her limp, but she seems to be a very happy girl and in love with her mate.

I'm sad to report that this small duck who has been at the lake for several years is either sick or injured.  He was fine a week or two ago.  He is acting normally, but is all hunched over.  He might have been attacked by a larger duck or even a predator.  I don't know how old he is, but he might recover.  He's probably a call duck mix and is just about the smallest mallard-derived duck at the lake.

Blue-gray gnatcatchers

This morning was bright and sunny and a lot of the birds were out singing and chasing each other around.  This blue-gray gnatcatcher was out in the open and didn't mind me chasing him around with the camera at all.  Most birds will immediately hide or leave the area if they even suspect you are following them around, but not this one.

One thing that definitely IDs these guys as blue-gray and not California gnatcatchers is that blue-gray gnatcatchers have nearly all white under-tail feathers.  This next photo is not the greatest example of that.  California gnatcatchers have mostly black tail with white outlines on the under-tail feathers.

I usually find them by listening to their call.  They make a more raspy version of the call that California gnatcatchers make.  There's more vibration in their calls.  California gnatcatchers have a thinner, higher pitched call.  Right now, there are a lot more blue-gray gnatcatchers doing calls at the lake than California gnatcatchers.

I took a couple photos of some gulls as we had a gull tragedy today.  One apparently healthy and beautiful gull was found floating in the water with his head under water.  At first, I thought maybe he got a dose of bad bacteria from his food as is common with gulls around this time of year.  But, after thinking about it, I think it was just another case of a young gull dying in his sleep during a cold night.   It sometimes happens with very young gulls, I've noticed.  He was so perfect, I almost wanted to see if a museum wanted him as a specimen 

In the meantime, here are a couple photos of living gulls, the first one being a California gull:

I think this next photo is either a western gull with a pretty head, or a herring gull.  Most likely a western gull (or a hybrid):

And, a white crowned sparrow.

The common yellowthroat was out in the open again, but by the time I tried to take a photo of him, he decided to go back into the reeds and do his calls.

All the ducks are accounted for and seem to be doing fine.  The geese are fine, too, but are fighting a lot.

Gaddy the gadwall

Gaddy is so beautiful!  He is one of two (possibly three) gadwall ducks that live at Lake Murray all year around.  More visit in the winter, but this winter there have been very few.  He has a sister, but doesn't spend time with her at all.  And, sometimes I see his mother, but I don't think I've seen her lately.

I used to think that Gaddy's mother was half mallard (which would make him 1/4 mallard), but now I'm not so sure because he looks to be a perfect gadwall.  I know his father was a full-blooded gadwall who died right around the time Gaddy and his sister hatched.  Gaddy is even more beautiful than his dad.

Neither Gaddy nor his sister had offspring last year.  I don't even think their mom had any ducklings, either, perhaps because there weren't any male gadwalls around when she was ready to breed.  I know that Gaddy likes to follow around a certain mallard female and his sister is bonded to a mallard male, but I've never seen either of them breeding.

The female mallard he tends to follow around looks like this female who doesn't like this male mallard at all. She never fights with Gaddy.  

I wanted to add that today I saw a common yellowthroat hopping around right at my feet, which is very unusual.  Unfortunately, it was very dark out and my shutter was pretty slow, so the photo is blurred.  My quest for a perfect common yellowthroat photo continues.

Killdeer at the salt works

I forgot to add the photos of the killdeer at the salt works from last Sunday.  There are usually about thirty of them there all year around.

I didn't see any that looked like they were related to the Lake Murray killdeer.