Domestic duck update and a gull with a fish

Yet another female domestic duck has gone missing.  This time, it was a healthy female Pekin.  When she first started mating, she was very scared and always kept her head way up over the water.  But, she relaxed a little bit as time went on, but still kept her head up above the water.  I guess it wasn't good enough.  Both she and one of the Swedish ducks are missing from that big flock.  I hope they're together on some nest or something.   Another female duck has been burying herself in thickets and doing other things to get the males to stop mating with her.  She's really beat up, but still alive. A single male tries to protect her, but often can't.

Across the lake, Bumblefoot is still going strong, but is very lonely if she doesn't have any Pekin ducks near her.  The new Pekin ducks have moved nearby and seem curious about her, but prefer people and are extremely hungry.  I was hoping that Bumblefoot would show them around, but they haven't made friends with her, yet.  Bitey is also doing well and I think his hormones are calming down a little.  All other domestic ducks are doing well except I haven't seen Cinnamon's Twin's Twin, her mate and "Spot", the Welsh Harlequin, since that incident last Sunday when the drakes were ganging up on her.  They all hang out together, so they might just be away from the area.

There are now three baby herons in the nest and I think the two bigger ones are trying to push the smallest one out, but he's very strong for a little guy, and a fighter.  Here's the biggest one, the other two sank down in the nest.

And, I watched this western gull with a prized fish.  Gulls love fish more than anything else in the world, it seems.  Here he is trying to position the fish:

"I got a fish!"

Down the hatch!

Nope, I guess not.

Needs more washing:

And, finally, a photo of Smudge who lets me get really close to her as does her mate.  I didn't even see her mate even though I passed within about ten feet of him.

Still no ducklings, yet.  Neo's mom is traditionally the first one to have ducklings at this lake, usually around the 20th, but I don't think I've seen her this year (I may have seen her a month ago, but I'm not sure).  The other mother who had the ducklings on April 10th last year has not been seen in the last week and will probably not be having them as early as she did last year.