Tiny dumped duckling

Yesterday, I got a call about a "gosling" that had hatched at the lake that had spent the night in the freezing cold rain and hail the night before next to his dead friend's body.  I knew that none of the geese were tending a nest or even breeding, so I went over to take a look and found this guy:

When I first saw him, I thought he was a Pekin, but he had a weird shape, thick legs, and a weird shaped head that was triangular like a goose.  He was also found hanging out with the geese and the worker who found him was pretty certain he was a gosling.  I took him over in a crate to the geese and though several were curious about him, none seemed to claim him, so I know he wasn't one of their babies.  He was also the wrong color, all yellow.  There are only three all white geese there and two are male and one is a female bonded to a gray male in which both breeds breed gray and yellow goslings.  So, I knew he had been dumped there.

Before I left to go look at him, I sent an email to several people with my cell phone number attached so that they could call me while I still had them.  There's pretty much a no tolerance policy with animals at the apartment where I live, so I couldn't take him home.  I went to a couple of feeds stores and they couldn't provide a heat lamp.  Consider that he was already hypothermic, I didn't want to leave him anywhere that wasn't warm, so I decided to take him to the local wildlife center to see if they can take him.

Well, on the way there, I got a call for someone who would take him in case the wildlife center couldn't (and they couldn't.  The next step was to bring him to the animal shelter).  So, I brought him to her house. She already has several chickens, ducks and a couple of geese and wanted to get some more.   So, she took in the little guy and kept him warm.

It turned out he wasn't a gosling at all, but a jumbo Pekin duckling, probably about one to two weeks old.  He's just old enough where he would begin to be weaned off a heat lamp, but still way too young to be out in under 40 degree wet weather.  So, now he has a home and is going to be one spoiled ducky from what I could see of his new owner's other animals.

Too bad about his friend, though.  If I had seen them before the storm, I could have saved both.

In other news, Oreo was seen trying to hang out with the 4 "babies", which are actually a group of four Pekin drakes that were dropped off last September.  They are actually not babies, but I call them that.  Oreo still misses his friend and even though he follows Cinnamon around, I think he still identifies himself with Pekins (even though he's a Swedish duck).

Two fuzzy dumped Easter ducklings

Last night, there was a lot of rain.  This morning, I found these two baby Pekins all alone, dumped at the side of the lake.

 Apparently, they had been there since the afternoon before.  They appear to be about 3-4 weeks old, which would put them right in the middle of the Easter season.  Usually, ducklings this age won't survive the night, especially a stormy night.  But, luckily, it was warmer than usual and the predators stayed away.  In the morning, one of the herons was eying the smaller of the two.  Plus, they seemed to be starving.

When I got them home, they were very dirty from the dirt in the carrier I was using.

I gave them a little bath:

They were still dirty, but they seemed to get really tired in the tub, so I took them out and dried them off.

Here is a video I made of them bathing (Yes, I know my tub is disgustingly dirty.  It's not as bad as it looks on video and I cleaned it afterward):






They were later taken to a store called Bird Crazy on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. to be adopted out. Bird Crazy specializes in exotic birds, but they thought they could help these babies. If you are interested in adopting them, look up that store here in San Diego.

Later, when I was returning the carrier, I saw Cinnamon's Twin.  The boys have been rough with her unlike Cinnamon whose feathers, so far, are in good shape.  Cinnamon's Twin also has lost a lot of weight.

"Baby Goose" is all grown up and still hanging around, but seems to have no friends.

And, here is a funny looking gadwall.  I think he might be in the middle of a molt or could be a mallard-gadwall hybrid with genes heavily on the gadwall side:

Junior and Killer Junior, the killdeers were having a lot of fun chasing and yelling at each other.  Shy's mate was really upset about a Cooper's hawk that was trying to attack him, but, then, went for some crows instead.  And, Squeak's eggs have all hatched and all the chicks have been moved to a secure location where people can't get to them.  Shy went with them, leaving her mate all alone.

RIP Big Daddy2 (Latte)

Took at trip to Lake Murray to check on Jack and Jill and found the vultures eating parts of what was left of Big Daddy2 (Latte).

It looks like he died in his sleep as there didn't seem to be a struggle and none of the other ducks were upset.  In fact, it looked like Bigboi was looking and calling for him.

Jill is doing OK, but seems very sad without Jack who has been missing since at least Monday.  I haven't been able to talk to anyone who might know what happened to him, yet.