Final Duckling Report

I'm sorry that I haven't been updating lately as I've been so busy that personal projects have been put aside. I have a ton of photos which haven't been processed yet, including several bird pictures from my trip to a bird festival in Tucson.  In the meantime, I have a few duckling photos from the last of this year's ducklings.

I would have to say that, in terms of survivors, this year has been a great duckling season, except for July. I didn't see a single duckling hatched in late June or July survive, though a few might have in areas that I couldn't reach.

I think in my last post on July 7th, I mentioned this orphaned duckling and the mom who lost all of her ducklings. Well, the duckling finally bonded to this mama. I saw both of them for a few more days before they disappeared. I think the mama took him to a safer place. I am not sure if he made it adulthood, but if he did, he may be the only one to do so.

This mother duck had 13 ducklings to begin with. She hung around the boat docks and was doing really well with her ducklings and managed to keep most of them alive for at least two weeks.

Then, unfortunately, a coyote or dog attacked her and her ducklings, ripped off part of her face and damaged her eye. The eye is still there, but severely damaged. She then began to lose ducklings until, after almost three weeks, none were left.

I saw the mama duck for a couple of weeks after this and she was healing up very well and showed no signs of affliction except she had to compensate for not being able to see on that side. She was even flirting with the males. Unfortunately, I haven't seen her for almost a month now and don't know if she just moved off to a new area of passed away.

The adopted duckling with the older sibling grew up and are really tight best friends. The adopted one is a female and the other one is a male and go everywhere together.

Here is the female one, still friendly.

The other duckling that was raised separate by another female became independent really early and left her mom on her own.

A new mother duck with four ducklings showed up. She looked like one of Miss Una's relatives.

A fifth duckling from her brood was hatched later at someone's house, so the person at that house released him at the lake. However, she released him to wrong mother who attacked him. That mama had an independent duckling and the new duckling bonded to him and was glued to him for a long time. 

Then, he began to follow any adult duck he could find, even the males. I had a feeling that he was part of the mom with four above, so I used his following the other ducks to an advantage. I pretended I was throwing food out to get all the ducks to follow me towards the other mother duck (who was actually coming up from the other end of the beach area). 

The mother duck went up tot he duckling, who wasn't sure about her at first, and he seemed to brace for an attack. However, she began clucking at him and he blended in with the other ducklings. He seemed just fine when I left as seen in this photo. Unfortunately, the next day, I only saw four ducklings in that brood, again, but I think he was still with her.

 Unfortunately, none of those ducklings survived. Here is the mom with her last one, whom, I am almost certain, is the one that was released. At least he lived his short life with a loving wild duck family.

There was one other duckling hatched in early July. He, too, was one of four who were doing very well until they started disappearing. This is his last photo taken in late July when he was almost a month old. Someone told me they saw a mama duck with a young duckling in an area that is difficult to get to, but I never saw him again and I thought I saw his mama alone. I am hoping that she just took him elsewhere.

As of the end of July, there were no young ducklings left, however there were a few older ones around that may have been either ones that were raised in other parts of the lake, or Project Wildlife releases.

More and More Ducklings at Lake Murray

Right now, there are so many ducklings being hatched that they are pretty much everywhere.

The seven from last week were down to three yesterday. These had made it to ten days old, which is rare in this spot. I doubt I will see them again after these photos because of too many predators. However, it's nice to get some photos of them at this age as it's been a long time since I've been able to do so. They were eating bread from the ground in some of the photos. I didn't feed them that, though, so don't tell me how bad bread is for them as I already know.

Lovely Miss Una was seen with ducklings about the same time. I saw her twice and she had four ducklings when I last saw her. Then, she disappeared. This was her pattern last year when she kept the ducklings in one place until their numbers started going down and then took them somewhere else where they can stay hidden, so they may still be around.

I saw this gull near the ducklings. It looks like he had the stuffing beat out of him. His wing might be broken. I don't know if Miss Una or one of the geese beat him up. I watched him for a few days and he's not doing good. I don't think he's going to make it. I can't catch him because he swims away. I hate seeing gulls get this old only to die shortly afterwards. It's very hard for a gull to reach breeding age.

I think Miss Una's Mother had these ducklings, yesterday. There were tons of gulls around, so I don't know how they fared. Miss Una's Mother is a very competent mother, so I hope all is good.

Lots of babies in the canals. I'm not sure who this mama duck is:

This female, also in the canal, looks a lot like "Mama's Little Weakling" from a few years ago. She was raised in the canal, so it makes sense that her ducklings are being raised there as well.

And, of course, Mr. and Mrs. Squeaker and their one adorable baby:

Still no signs of any other goslings, yet. I suspect there's at least three other nests going on.

Grumpy (or Larry) update:

I can't remember if I've mentioned it in my other posts, but the parking lot goose which I called Grumpy (also known as "Larry" by one other person) was taken to Project Wildlife to be rehabilitated and, perhaps, released somewhere where she won't get into trouble. She was the one who liked to stare at her reflection in the cars in the parking lot. She was causing a lot of problem as she had started to go out to street and local businesses, so she could have caused an accident or got hurt.

A New Contender for First Duckling

I went back to Lake Murray today and found this cute little guy who may actually be older than the ducklings I saw yesterday.

I suspect all his siblings were eaten by predators. He's the only one I saw for that one particular female.

In the meantime, these seven guys have made it through their first day out. Many of the predators don't begin to pick them off until they're at least three or four days old.

Here's the mom with one of these cuties:

Snowie had her ducklings today, but they were not out of the nest, so I couldn't really get a picture of them. They were terrified of me and hid under mama's feathers to hide.

This one has a little mask.

Unfortunately, that will probably be all the pictures I'm going to get of Snowie's ducklings as I can't be there for almost a week. Since she's not the best protector and she's only got two, they are unlikely to last very long. So if you want to see them, they should be out this afternoon and you can take pictures of them.

No signs of goslings, yet.

First Ducklings of 2017!

The first ducklings I've seen for this year at Lake Murray have just arrived. There's a chance that others may have hatched earlier, but are hidden in areas away from people. So far, no signs of goslings and only a couple pairs appear to be nesting so far.

I think the mother is either Butterscotch, the last of the Fish Food ducklings, or Ducky's mate (Ducky died a few months ago). There was vegetation in front of me, so that's why there's a beige streak in the middle of the photo.

Meanwhile, Snowy, the Appleyard duck, is still sitting on her nest. It almost looks like someone took some of her duck eggs and replaced them with chicken eggs as many of them are small. Snowy has been sitting for at least a month.

The white swan goose has also been laying eggs, but someone has been taking them and throwing them at other people or on the rocks.

Sissy, who has been at the lake for at least three years, has gone missing. She was healthy the last time I saw her. I'm hoping she's nesting. I thought I heard a clucking coming from the reeds and all the male ducks, especially Runner Duck, have been poking their heads in there now and then.

Sissy

Fish Food Mama has a 2nd Clutch!

I got a call last night, from one of the workers at the lake, that one of our "tough mother ducks" had eight babies! At first, I didn't know who the mama was and when I went this morning to check on them, I found eight little babies, including three black ones, and their mama. It was Fish Food Mama, the mom who not only raised the Fish Food Ducklings, but had just finished raising five ducklings this year! Here is a short video and slideshow I took:




I couldn't believe it was her, I've never heard of a duck raising a second clutch after successfully raising another clutch.  I was hoping it was Peaches, but, nope, it's Fish Food Mama.  Speaking of Peaches, I haven't seen her around, either.  Maybe she's trying to for a second clutch, too.  It's very late in the year for new ducklings and wonder how this is going to affect their survival.

Here are some more photos:

There were three black-ish ducklings

They had a little trouble with the grated surface of the boat launch where they were hanging out at that moment:

Unfortunately, there were gulls right where she was hanging out.  But, strangely, they almost seemed to be avoiding them.  They seemed more interested in raiding the trash and picnics than eating ducklings.  Hmmmmm.

In other news, the two ducklings and their mama were seen in their regular spot and don't seem to be in a hurry to leave.  They are four weeks old now and still undersized.  Their feather development has slowed down because of the heat.  I think this is the first time I've seen them in over a week:

The "yellow" duckling:

Mom and Zippy:

I went out looking for Neo and thought this was him, but, instead, I had a nice surprise.  This was the duckling that had a fish hook through its bill and was caught on a fish line wrapped around a stick.  I managed to pull the hook out and free the duckling, but wasn't sure if his bill healed.  Well, I guess it did (you can still see the hole in the bill) and here he is today:

But, I saw no sign of Neo.  I think he hangs out in the algae bloom with his dad.

I was thinking that, maybe, this duck was Cinnamon's Twin who disappeared a few months ago.  I thought maybe she was one of the ones taken to Project Wildlife recently.  But, no, this duck's head and neck looks very different than Cinnamon's Twin and I am now positive that she is gone forever.

Saturday morning at the lake

The two ducklings are still there, but don't seem to be growing normally, though they are feathering out correctly for their age of almost three weeks.

Here is the yellow-ish duckling:

 Zippy, or the black duckling.  Something also seems to be wrong with her eyes.  Actually, both of their eyes don't look right.  Zippy seemed a little tired-er than usual, too.

Mom is very good at handling predators so far.  There were gulls and herons to deal with today, but, last I saw them, they were OK and safe.

These dumped 3 month old Pekins are doing well and squeak-waaak at me.  The leader came right up and checked out my hand to see if I had a treat, but they all left when they realized I had no food.  Then, suddenly, they all ran into the water.  Finger-biter and Chocolate were swimming by and I think they are scared of them.

I found an osprey feather today under the osprey nest.  By law, I can't take it home, so I just looked at it and took a photo.  But, I have a feeling that someone else picked it up, anyway.

The young killdeer, whom I think are two of Junior's chicks, were together.  Here is the female:

Here is the male, whom is very protective of the female.

I did not see Bossy or Neo today, nor did I see the other two ducklings someone says lives in a different area than the two that I have been photographing.