Summer Company!

The solitary resident American Pelican had some company drop in for a few weeks:

I wonder if Pelican 1's presence attracted the others somehow. "Dudes, the cocktails at this bar are really good. You haaave to try the Brackish Algae mojito; can you believe it's muddled in a concrete trough? Soooo retro. "


Later I saw two of them swimming together, doing some "repeat after me" style foraging. First swim:

Then dabble...

They're so funny; they're like gigantic ducks when they do that. I wonder if their synchronized movements are related to breeding at all... the Western grebes do something similar, although their moves are clearly for style, whereas the pelicans could have been just eating.

Also, I noticed that their bumps are indeed gone, to the great keratin graveyard... this one just has a tiny trace of beak bump left:


On a slightly related note, I spotted a few other unlikely summer visitors the other day--a pied billed grebe, a ring-billed gull, and two coots. Where did they come from, where are they going? The Pelican has a diverse group of friends, that's all I can say.

More dead things, I am morbid.

Another pleasant summer stroll in the park interrupted by a trail of tears. First, a solitary bit of wing:

And a picked clean wishbone:

Ten feet away, the head of the unfortunate pigeon, tossed aside like a candy wrapper.

And if this display of machismo and general shreddingness weren't enough, there was THIS alarming corpse nearby:

The only predatory bird I have seen at the lake is a Cooper's hawk. They definitely pick the feathers off their prey and eat the breast meat, but I have never before seen one rip the wings and head off. And they are not big enough to kill a Canada Goose! That would be like a chihuahua bringing down a sheep! Though I guess one might eat an already-dead goose? I'm thinking that something a little more butch has moved into the neighborhood. A red tail perhaps?

Crested Blue Swedish!

I can't believe I haven't written about this yet. Now that summer is in full gear and the more exotic lake visitors are away, we have to make do with our familiar neighbors and check in with how they are doing. So, today's post is about a familiar friend: Crested Blue Swedish.

A Blue-Swedish is a type of domestic duck that has a grey-blue color; a crested-duck is another kind of domestic duck with a fluffy head tuft. There are several crested ducks at the lake but only one combines these two traits:

Creted Blue Swedish hangs out at the little beach which probably has a real name, but Tom and I call it Swedish beach. Blue Swedish has a mate, a white duck with a black beak. They're always together.

Looking at these two pictures, I noticed that Blue Swedish's plumage has changed somewhat over the years... the first picture is from 2007, and the one above is from this month. Weird!

Anyway, the two of them have a motley gang of friends, usually two other white ducks, a mallard, and a brown and white duck.

At one point we had an idea to make a "Wanted" style poster for Crested Blue Swedish... Have YOU seen this duck? It was a great "urban art" project idea that eventually petered out when we got distracted by the internet or something.

How does the sun cut his hair? Eclipse it!

The thousands of geese at the Lake aren't the only ones getting a wardrobe makeover. Mallards also change their coats this time of year, and for a brief time they look terribly shabby and hardly any chic! I haven't gotten a great picture of it since, understandably, they like to hide from the paparazzi (and of course predators) during this awkward, flightless time.

On this mallard you can see that he's looking quite brown and scruffy around the eye, and it'll probably get worse as he continues to molt.

Pelicans are also supposed to have an eclipse plumage. Remember earlier when the pelican had that funny little head tuft? It has lost that, and is now sporting what looks like a bad case of head-mildew.

I remember reading that the beak bump falls off in one big chunk like a giant fingernail clipping. I'd love to find one of those lying around!

I wish they all could be California Gulls

After 4 years of gull-watching by the Lake, I'm slowly getting better at telling them apart--at least, telling the "EASY" ones apart!

So here's a ring-billed gull. The key here is that it has a black beak stripe. Hey, if you liked that beak you shoulda put a ring on it. There's no mistaking this gull, it's a dead-ringer. Ha. Ha. But what's great about getting a freebie gull is that you can use it as your benchmark to compare other, harder gulls. Thus you can ask, is is larger or smaller than a ring-billed? Is it darker or paler? Mew gulls are about the same size, Western gulls, somewhat larger, and glaucous-winged gulls seems gigantic compared to this one. Other field marks are the yellow eye and legs.

Here we have giaganto gull, the Glaucous-winged. "Glaucous" means "cloudy" (like glaucoma) so it's kind of a romantic notion. "On wings of cloud..." The dirty reality is, look at the wingtips. Unlike other common Lake Merritt gulls, they are the same color as the back--light grey. It's like seeing them through a cloud. Or something. Other field marks to check: pink legs, dark eye. When young these dudes are also very pale. I think of them as "Vanilla."

Everytime I see this one, I sing to myself: "Oakland town's a dead-end world, East-End boys and Western Gulls [WEST-ERN GULLS doo dooo doo dood dooo d'do]". Here's where knowing the ring-bill well comes in handy. If it's bigger AND darker, then it's a Western. Also note pink legs and (theoretically) yellow eye (although this eye looks dark in the photo. GULLS IS TRICKSY)

The first two gulls I only see in winter. That's because in summer they go up to the arctic and have crazy orgies where they hybridize and make things all difficult for birwatchers trying to ID their hapa babies. Western gull is pretty much always around, because it breeds on islands in the Pacific ocean. With such a short commute, I guess it has more time for loitering.

This last gull is one I'm just getting to know. I recently realized that I have probably been seeing it all along and not noticing that it's a different species. Also, it's not supposed to be on the coast in summer. This one must have declined to go breed on a river island in Utah. I can understand that. Anyway, it's a California Gull. Can't you tell by the tiny bit of black there on the beak tip? And can't you see the red eye ring? HAHAHAHAHA. Ok the easiest way to tell is to look at the legs, and, again, compare to others. They're not yellow like a ring billed, not pink like a western. They're kind of bluish grey. And it took me a long time to figure this out because both of my field guides paint the legs far yellower. Sorry, Sibley, ya failed me on this one.


Anyway, I've only been noticing the California gull in the last few weeks, and I wondered if that's because it's only here in summer, or if I just never noticed it before. So I checked out ebird (which is SO FUN for anyone who likes Data with a capital D) and discovered.... INSUFFICIENT DATA!

I got curious and checked out the stats for all of Lake Merritt... and I found that there is INSUFFICIENT DATA for almost every species between April and August... even Canada Geese! I think this is because most people come to the lake in winter to see the cool winter ducks. But who'd bother coming out and writing down that they saw some lousy old gulls, geese, robins, and pigeons? Well, now that I know about this gaping hole in the data, I for one will be happy to sacrifice... for Science!

TURTLES!

Sometimes turtles appear in the lake. It's a bad place for them, for it is far too salty, which I think I read causes them to have organ failure or something. I think if park staff find them they tuck them away in this little pond by the visitor center.

They're usually non-native turtles, like these two, which appear to be red-eared sliders. I'm not very good with my reptile ID, but if I'm right, this kind of turtle is a popular pet, until it gets big and poops in its aquarium one too many times. I guess then people think "water = turtle home" and dump them into the lake.

Guys. BRACKISH water. It has salt in it. These are FRESH water turtles. Guys.

Don't let this happen to your pet. Even if it is awfully colorful.

Baby Towhee

A few days ago Tom and I heard some incessant tweeting coming from the parking lot across from our apartment. When we looked out the window, we saw a towhee running back and forth on the fence, flying down to the driveway and back up again. Eventually we were able to spot the cause for all the fuss:

I'd be freaked out too if my baby was in a driveway! This little guy looked a bit too young to fly, so we guessed it must have fallen out of a nest somewhere and hopped over to visit us. The internet informed us that in fact, birds will NOT reject their babies if you touch them. Various rehab sites recommended replacing the baby in the nest, or, if the nest could not be found, making a substitute nest and putting that in a tree.


We used a box that formerly contained a wedding gift to shelter the baby... and after multiple tries of getting the box to stay on a branch, we ducktaped the box to a tree. I have a newfound respect for birds' nest-making skills. The parents seemed a bit confused at first and continued to call, although it could have been because of the two cats who came over to investigate. Finally they must have found the little guy. And in the morning it was gone. Good luck baby towhee!