First is another panoramic of Lake Mirror from the other side of the lake.
I was really fast on the draw with my camera to get this shot of an Anhinga swimming/fishing. They are quick!
At first I thought this was a GBH (Great Blue Heron), but it is way to small. I don't think it's a juvenile either because there is just something not right in it's shape. So I shoot this over to our resident wild bird expert, Sara, for the "What is it?" answer.
A beautiful Snowy Egret. My first sighting of one too. :D
And boy was it skittish! I actually got a shot of it flying away..
and flying back when I moved off.
Another shot of the mystery bird.
Another question for Sara, is it a Cormorant or an Anhinga?
The main reason we went back to Lake Mirror was to check up on the ducklings. When we found them my heart broke and it was everything John could to to keep me from rounding them most of them up and bringing them home.
The first thing I noticed was that we went from 20 ducklings to 11. :(
They were so hungry they ran for us begging for food. I noticed some scampered up the hill with ease and others, couldn't make it out of the water.
I moved closer to the shore line. I rarely tempt fate like this because I am a major klutz, but I needed to get a closer look.
You can't really see it here but we discovered that quite a few of the ducklings had lame/broken legs, including their mother.
Here you can see the one on the left has a bad leg. My heart was breaking watching him try and get food before the others gobbled it up.
As I tried to give as much food as I could to the ducklings a momma mallard showed up with her healthy little brood.
John went over to them with some food to keep as many of the birds over by him while I concentrated on feeding the hurt ducklings. If you look carefully you'll see a turtle getting in on the action.
These are the lake bad boys. These are the two male Muscovy Ducks that have been harassing and attacking the ducklings so that the mothers will come back into season. Apparently when Momma duck tried to intervene he went after her and broke her leg in the process.
Of course like every other town in America, our parks and lakes are under the control of gangs. The gull gang here is also partly responsible for the conditions of the ducklings. Their aggressive food theft has had them running over ducklings in a mad grab for bread.
They have totally taken over this "outlook" area. They just stared at me like I was totally intruding on their space. Which I was and they were totally unafraid of my presence. I got pretty darn close too.
So that was my sad, sad weekend at the lake. I know when we go back we are going to stop at the feed store right across the street and pick up some really good food for the ducklings.
I always enjoy your lake pictures. :)
ReplyDeleteOkay! Your mystery bird actually stumped me, for a while. XD I had to get on allaboutbirds.org to do a search, since my birding book failed me. The guy looks sort of like a Little Blue Heron, but not with that white underbelly. I did a search, and...this is what I found! You've got a Tricolored Heron there. :)
With regard to the Cormorant vs. Anhinga question, that looks to be an anhinga. The white markings on the wings give it away. :)
Finally...those poor ducks! :( I'd want to take them all home and keep them safe, the poor things. Life in the wild is hard, even at a relatively not-so-wild place, like a park.
--Sara
I wanted to take them home and hide them from the evil evil world. It took a lot of convincing from John not to do it too.
ReplyDeleteYou prove again why you are the bird expert for this blog. Your amazing Sara. Thank you.