Gaddy the gadwall returns

I was thinking of Gaddy the beautiful gadwall this morning and how I hadn't seen him for a while.  But, he showed up for me.  Gaddy was one of two gadwall ducklings hatched at the lake and he lives there all year around.  I think his sister, though, took off with a male mallard as I haven't seen her since last fall.  Gaddy is molting and he doesn't look as cute as he did when he molted last year.

I threw in this photo of Bumblefoot who is still alive and still in pretty bad shape.  I hope she heals more.

 Canal Mama is doing well with her four ducklings, but they were not in the canal, but out on the lake.

Fish Food Mama's ducklings are getting their wing feathers.  I only saw 7 of them, but I'm sure the rest were there, hiding.  They should be able to fly in a couple of weeks.

I saw this mother with 9 tiny ducklings, a day old.

She was not doing a very good job of organizing them and made very little vocalizations.

Unfortunately, while I was there, two gulls made several attempts at grabbing one of her ducklings.  I managed to shoo the gulls away, but after I left, I saw them attack again, but didn't get any.  The mom seemed to be clueless about the gulls.

I think this mama lost all her ducklings to gulls last year in another area.  At least she tried to raise them in a different area this year.  But, I don't expect these ducklings to survive.  None of the ducklings in this area have survived so far.  The only ducklings that seem to survive are the ones with very organized, bossy mothers.

She even led the ducklings right up to this night heron.  But, at the time, I think he just wanted to sleep.

The osprey chicks are just about ready to fly off.  Their parents are trying to coax them from the nest.  One seems interested.

And, finally, I have to say "good-bye" to Big Daddy.  Here's his last photo, taken while he was sick early in April.  He seemed to get better and disappeared a couple weeks later, most likely with the other males in his group. I suspect he got too weak and curled up in the brush or reeds and died.  He's been gone before, but never for a month or more.  He was there at least four years.   I also said "good-bye" to several other ducks such as Cinnamon's Twin's Twin, the crested rouen, and the "little girl" pekin duck that the males beat up.

Big Daddy and a few other birds at Lake Murray

Big Daddy this year

Big Daddy is at his peak of redness and seems to get redder every year.  Here is a photo from last December:

A couple days ago, I did a bird count and found a bunch of shovelers:

For those who think I don't know what a yellow-rumped warbler looks like, here is a first year female.  Most of the ones we get here are Audubon's warblers.  I haven't seen any Myrtle warblers here:

And, I threw in a few white pelicans:

Mad mamma ducks!

The one little duckling was still hanging on when I saw him today.  But, his mom was being harassed by the males and actually flew off and left him alone with the heron and cormorants!

But, he heard her quacks and they were soon reunited.  She is not a very attentive mother and I fear that, soon, this duckling is no more.  So far, he's made it to about 18-19 days old.  Here he is getting ready to lay down and go to sleep.  I walked away, but when I tried to see him from across the lake, I couldn't.  I could see the mom, but not him.  I didn't see any predators in the area, so I am just hoping that he was hard to see because of his small size and the fact that he wasn't moving around:

I saw another new mama with a yellow duckling!  It's the brown female (I call her brown because her head is really dark brown and has very little markings) and I think that's Big Daddy's baby. That would make him 1/4 saxony, 1/4 pekin and half mallard.  I sure hope he makes it.  His mom was very attentive and watchful of her ducklings.

I disturbed her from her hiding spot:

She was heading right for mama heron who was following a cormorant around.  She was hoping to steal the cormorant's catch or take advantage of the cormorant's ability to herd and ball fish.  Mama heron didn't seem interested in the ducklings right now:

One time, the cormorant popped up near the duck family and began staring at the ducklings.  Brown mama got furious and attacked him with all her might.  I have never seen a cormorant kill a duckling or chick, they seem so focused on catching fish.  Doesn't mean they won't if they had the opportunity arose:

After a short time, she disappeared like a good mama duck should. 

This is a photo of the mom with the five ducklings, but she only has two in this photo.  She still has five.  It's entirely possible that the dead duckling the raven got a couple days ago wasn't from her brood as she came from a different area of the lake.  I have a feeling that the duckling that the raven got was the single duckling I had seen last week.  His mom was seen a couple days ago without a duckling and was trying to steal one of these.  The duckling may have died naturally.  

 Louie and Jill are looking more like a pair every time I see them.  Louie works real hard to convince Jill that he's not aggressive.  Once, he went over to her and stretched out his neck to protect her from people and dogs, but quickly curled it up as soon as he saw her looking at him.  He makes sure his neck is always flexed and curled around her, but follows her around and sits near her wherever she goes:

Pepper's wing is actually doing better.  I saw him stretch it all the way out today.  It looked pretty good.  I think, though, his shoulder might be mis-aligned, but it could just be sore.  It doesn't appear to be broken and he seems to have full movement.

Big Daddy, the Saxony-Pekin hybrid was missing today.  I'm a little worried, but it's not the first time he's disappeared.  He can't fly, but does wander a lot.