What do you do with Dowitchers?

Dowitchers? May 2, 2015

As often happens, our walk along the Santa Ana River Trail yesterday was punctuated by, "Those look different -- what do you suppose they are?" A group of brownish shorebirds, generically known to me as "bobbers," were poking around among the rocks. Fortunately, my husband had brought his camera, which is much better than my point-and-shoot for taking ID photos.

Babies!

Today there were lots of babies! The first that we saw out on the Santa Ana River Trail were the 3 surviving ducklings that I mentioned in my last post. Still OK, but farther downstream than before.

Then we saw these, a mama wood duck (or maybe Mandarin?) with 13 ducklings. She was keeping them very close, and moved them from the near shore of the river to the far side when we appeared. This was the best picture we got, and I can't tell whether the eye-stripe is long, like a Mandarin, or short, like a Woodie. OC Birder Girl has an excellent post here about identifying the females of the two species, with lots of cross-references. I hope I'll see the family again and be able to study them more closely.

Then we came upon this Mallard family. They were in a particularly fast-moving part of the river, and mama was hustling them right along. It's so cute to see the ducklings run over the surface of the water when they need to hurry! They disappeared down a branch of the stream, and I don't expect we'll see them again.

M.I.A.

The coots are gone, or nearly so. Two weeks ago, there were only about 25; last week about 15; today only 10. (Yesterday at Tri City Park in Placentia, CA, there weren't any.) So where do they go? More interestingly, how do they go? They don't fly well, at least in the park, so it's hard to imagine them taking a long journey by air. Do they hitchhike? Maybe they're like Monarch butterflies, which have migrating generations and non-migrating generations?

Egyptian goose and gosling: April 23, 2015

Also Missing In Action today was the singleton baby Egyptian goose. It was doing well a week ago, as this picture attests, Both parents were with it. But today only the parents were there, with no baby in sight. Sadness.

Egyptian Geese

Egyptian geese (Alopochen aegyptiacus) get classified in the National Geographic's bird books among the "exotic waterfowl," even though they're pretty common around here. They're also quite reliable breeders at Yorba Regional Park. Usually at any one time there are at least two breeding pairs producing two clutches of four to eight goslings each.

New Baby Egyptian!

On Saturday, we went for a walk so we wouldn't be there on Easter Sunday, when there are usually tons of people in the park. Well, there were still tons of people, including folks hiding Easter eggs, so we didn't expect to see many birds. Imagine our surprise when we saw a pair of Egyptian geese with their brand-new baby!

This was in an area that we don't walk often, on the south side of lake 3 (counting from the west) -- we'd been avoiding the crowds, too! Keep your fingers crossed for the little one: we've seen a 50-50 survival rate. Will a solo gosling have better odds than an 8-chick family? Let's hope so!

Mandarin ducks

Male Mandarin duck, April 26, 2013

One of the most exotic birds that we see at Yorba Regional Park is the Mandarin duck. The first time we saw one, it was pointed out to us by another walker. Our first pictures date to May 2012 (note the lack of sail-feathers on the wings.)

Male Mandarin duck & male Wood duck, April 27, 2012

Coots

Coot season is in full swing! The park abounds with black shmoo-shaped birds with white faces and funny feet.

©Dan Dzurisin: Spooked American Coots

They are always alert to feeding opportunities, and bring all their friends along if they think you might have food to offer. I always explain that I don't feed people, but there are so many of them that there are always a few who haven't heard the news and... hope springs eternal!