Disappearing and Re-appearing Ducklings

Duck breeding season is both a happy and a sad time for me. Happy because I love seeing all the adorable babies. Sad because many females are killed by male ducks and many ducklings are eaten. Already, I have witnessed gulls grabbing ducklings and eating at least one. They may also be responsible for the disappearance of this one, the last of about ten that hatched about 9 days ago.

The mom didn't seem to care.

Last year's "uneaten duckling," Miss Una, was seen with ten of her own ducklings. She's such a wonderful mama, very conscientious and loving.

Now, here's the weird part. Last Friday, Miss Una had six ducklings, including a lame one that got bit hard by a male and had trouble with his leg. On Saturday, Miss Una had only five ducklings, and I suspected that the lame one probably died from his injuries. However, when I walked around the curve, I found another female, possibly Miss Una's mother, with three ducklings the same age, including one with a hurt foot. She went one way and Miss Una happy went another way.

Today, that other mother was seen with at least 12 ducklings, including the one with the hurt foot. Some looked younger than others.

 One duckling didn't want to go with this other female. When I approached, he ran after the group, but went off on his own and stayed by himself for quite a long time, peeping now and then.

 Later, I saw Miss Una with the one duckling who seemed very happy just to stay with her.

The other female, with at least 11 or 12 ducklings, disappeared at first, but was later seen in the area. She seemed to want to keep her distance from Miss Una and her one duckling. The problem is that this mother takes a lot more risks with her babies than Miss Una and I fear that they may not make it.

For some weird reason, the gulls do not want to fly over this area. There's a kingbird actively attacking many birds, but I don't think they attack gulls. It could just be a fluke and they may decide they want to go over and grab some ducklings eventually.

The gosling season has started and, already, there are two broods. Two more broods will be arriving soon. 

RIP Mr. Pekin and Arthritis Duck:

After looking for them for over a week, I finally found out what happened to Mr. Pekin and the duck with arthritis. They both disappeared at the same time and I was sure that at least one of them was still around because it's rare that two would die suddenly. I found both of their remains today and it looks like they coyotes got both of them the same time. They had been following Miss Angel to this area which is a little further away than they usually go. Miss Angel is OK, however.  Those two were best friends until the last minute. They both join Mr. Squeaky who was killed by coyotes a few months ago.

Bigboi trouble and domestic duck update

It's been a while since I was at Lake Murray and I wanted to check up on the two female buff ducks.  One of the females had a swollen belly.  When I didn't see her, I figured she died.

Here is her skinny sister.

The runner duck was walking around protecting her:

I didn't see Bigboi, but I wasn't that worried because he often goes off on his own and figured that the old duck would be OK.  When I walked away, the runner duck ran over to a concrete wall next to the sidewalk and kept looking over into these weeds.  I could see the weeds moving around, so I went to check.  It was then that I heard a male duck quack and could see Bigboi stuck between the weeds and the wall:

I grabbed him and pulled him out.  He didn't even thank me and ran over to the skinny blonde duck.  The runner duck followed him.  He seemed fine.  I was afraid I grabbed him the wrong way.  He was pretty scared when I grabbed him.

Later, I found the duck with the swollen belly.  She didn't look at me.  Apparently, she was hiding in the reeds either to hide from the males, or to lay eggs.  She promptly disappeared back in the reeds.  Apparently, Bigboi was stuck in the reeds after trying to get to her.

The crested runner mated with the skinny duck and, afterwards, all the males got together to talk about it:

There were two wigeons nearby, too:

Here's Baby Blue and a green heron:

This green heron was clucking around, obviously upset about something:

This is my spot!

I think he was upset with two other herons feeding in the same area and he was the smallest.  The biggest, a great blue heron, flew off, but a smaller snowy egret stayed behind.

No, it's MY spot!

Tragedy of the abandoned duckling and more duck updates

Snowie and her nearly 5 week old baby

I haven't been to the lake for a while and I thought I'd give a short duck update.  Unfortunately, I wasn't there very long before there was a duckling tragedy.  I heard a duckling peeping very loudly and I thought I heard a female duck in the same area, but when I arrived where the duckling was, I saw no females around the entire area.  There was a small duckling, hours old,  running around to all the other ducks, who were all male, peeping his head off.  I am thinking he came from across the lake where there might be a nest or other ducklings as I've seen ducklings cross the lake by themselves, then swim back on their own.  So, he turned as if he was going back across the lake when I saw the gulls flying around.  I got my camera to take a photo of him while I figured out how to rescue him or find his mama.

One of the older gulls, probably at least 8 years old, flew around to the far side of me and grabbed the duckling right in front of me.  The duckling didn't even know what was coming until the gull was a foot away and tried to run, but was grabbed by the gull.  I tried to get a photo of the gull with the duckling, but the camera wouldn't work because of the speed and low light.  So, this next photo is all I got.  here, he had just dropped the duckling and was landing.

I had a photo where I could see the duckling in the water, but it was too late for him.  He was probably already dead as he was hanging in the water head-first.  In fairness to the gull, though it really did upset me, he did give fair warning as he took his time grabbing the duckling.  Had his mother been there, he might have survived.

Later, I tried to find the mama duck and the rest of her ducklings.  I found this female, who looked like "Ducklingnapper" with a green bill, quacking and calling for someone.  Ducklingnapper frequently knaps ducklings from inattentive mothers.  Perhaps she lured the duckling away from its mama to this area.  Usually, she's really good at taking care of them.

This was the female I heard in the area when the duckling started peeping.  She wasn't there when I got to the duckling, but I saw her fly from across the lake to this area, a half hour later, and begin quacking.  I thought maybe she was the mother looking for her baby.  But, I think she was just looking for her mate because when she found him, she stopped vocalizing.  I do think she has a nest across the lake, somewhere.  Perhaps this duckling hatched early and may have heard his mother quacking for her mate and went to look for her.  She may not have even known he was following her or that he was even one of hers.

I just hope that little duckling wasn't dumped as people often dump ducks at the spot where I found him.

I also saw this young female whom I thought was Fish Food Mama, but it might be one of her daughters. She's not ready to have ducklings, yet.

Snowie's baby is still alive and hasn't grown much since last week.  And, he still swims with his eyes closed.

I think this is Neo, but I'm not sure this duck is his girlfriend, Zippy.  But, Neo is very attractive to the females, so this new duck probably likes him, too.

 

Unfortunately, Bumblefoot is not doing well at all and seems very sick.  She still gets up, swims and eat, but acts very tired and it's obvious her leg and foot hurt.

Gaddy the gadwall

Gaddy is so beautiful!  He is one of two (possibly three) gadwall ducks that live at Lake Murray all year around.  More visit in the winter, but this winter there have been very few.  He has a sister, but doesn't spend time with her at all.  And, sometimes I see his mother, but I don't think I've seen her lately.

I used to think that Gaddy's mother was half mallard (which would make him 1/4 mallard), but now I'm not so sure because he looks to be a perfect gadwall.  I know his father was a full-blooded gadwall who died right around the time Gaddy and his sister hatched.  Gaddy is even more beautiful than his dad.

Neither Gaddy nor his sister had offspring last year.  I don't even think their mom had any ducklings, either, perhaps because there weren't any male gadwalls around when she was ready to breed.  I know that Gaddy likes to follow around a certain mallard female and his sister is bonded to a mallard male, but I've never seen either of them breeding.

The female mallard he tends to follow around looks like this female who doesn't like this male mallard at all. She never fights with Gaddy.  

I wanted to add that today I saw a common yellowthroat hopping around right at my feet, which is very unusual.  Unfortunately, it was very dark out and my shutter was pretty slow, so the photo is blurred.  My quest for a perfect common yellowthroat photo continues.

George and Martha are back?

I thought I saw George around a few times, but wasn't very sure.  I think this next picture might be him:

And, I think this might be Martha. I thought it might be Dee, at first, but Dee doesn't have two very distinct marks on her face that this killdeer has.  Both George and Martha were spotted very early in the morning.

Later, I think I saw George with a different killdeer.  It looked similar to Martha, but its breast bands were thinner.  Perhaps one of their offspring?

I think this might be George, again.

I thought I would take a photo of Pepper with his good side.

Bonaparte's gull and white pelicans

I went and took some photos at Lake Murray yesterday afternoon and this morning.  I was surprised to find a Bonaparte's gull there this morning.  I think it's a first winter juvenile.  I've never seen one of those at this lake before.  He was trying to snatch fish out of the water like terns do.

Yesterday, I saw a huge flock of white pelicans flying around the lake.

Really big.  They landed far away, so I didn't get a picture of them.

There were already a few on the ground, waiting:

When I was there, yesterday, the crows were beginning to roost:

They played games with each other and harassed the other birds.

This morning, I saw this big ground of male killdeer milling around:

One looked like Little Miracle.  She and another killdeer wouldn't stop yelling at me.  The others didn't seem to mind.

This pretty duck was back for another winter here at Lake Murray:

And, I think this might be Indy.  His feathers look rough.  His two brothers looks about the same as he does.  I still haven't got the word as to whether or not Project Wildlife really did release him, so this may not be him, afterall.  But, it sure looks like him.