4 new dumped ducks, plus 4 baby mallards

Today, I found four new, young, Pekin ducks.  I think they're all male mostly because they seem to have a raspy peep and are really quiet.  One duck made a louder peep like a female, but it was raspy and he didn't vocalize as much as a female would.

Louie came over and greeted the four ducks who, smartly, moved away from him.  Once Louie saw that they were ducks and male, he went back to his geese friends.  I think he tried to call them over to the flock, but they ignored him.  I hope he leaves them alone as he attacked and injured a female Pekin duck a month or so ago.

The four ducklings I saw on Sunday are still alive!

The mom was keeping them well hidden:

This little yellowish duckling is the boss of all the others.  But, after a couple of hours, he was tired and lagging behind.  It is a warm, humid day.  

I still can't figure out who the mom is, but I think she might be a female that was hatched last year:

Later, the mom moved them out into an open area where gulls usually hang out, but there were only three gulls seen on the entire lake today (and three Caspian terns) and they were pretty far away, so they were relatively safe.  I think they were extra hungry today and that's why there were over there where people feed them.

This one is my favorite, so far.  I am betting it's a girl.  Still too young for me to get attached to her because anything can happen at this age:

I saw Pollux. his son and what I thought, at first, Squeak.  But, this may be Peanut, Squeak and Pollux's daughter.  Later, I just saw Pollux and his son alone.  I have a strong suspicion that Smudge, their other daughter,  has found a mate and has separated herself from the family.

I'm finding it harder and harder to distinguish Fish Food Mama's ducklings from the ones dropped off last week and others that are maturing.  I think this might be one of the males.  

I still can't find Neo, but a lot of juvenile and juvenile-looking ducks have been all hanging out in the same spot.  Twice, I thought this was Neo, but it's an older duck.

Do a biiiiiiig stretch!

Have a nice day!

A few photos

4 ballfield killdeer

I took a few photos today, nothing special.  I did see four or five killdeer at the lake.  I couldn't really ID them, but it looked like two males and two females.  I think one was Shy's mate and the others were Shy's mom and Dad.  I'm thinking the smallest killdeer might be Miracle or her sibling.  That would explain why Shy's mate is there, probably to watch over her.

Hurt wing gets attacked:

I wasn't going to check on Cinnamon, but I'm glad I did as I found one of her boyfriends attacking Hurt Wing, the duck with the damaged wing (that was probably hurt in the same way it was being damaged today).  The male was three times bigger than her and she sounded like she was in a lot of pain and tried to get away.  I got them to stop and she was able to get away.  He then attacked another female who could fly away.  A third female wasn't even bothered by him.  

Here she is, not even grateful that I saved her.  She flapped her wings and most of her flight feathers were completely torn. If she could fly before, she can't fly now.  She swam off with her more normal-sized boyfriend.

Here is the perpetrator.  He's usually a pretty nice duck, but today he was a butt-head.

I caught Jill returning from where Louie was this morning.  Of course, she had a chaperon, one of the Canada geese, so I don't know if anything happened.  She seemed to be doing a "swim of shame".  Louie won't follow her across the lake, he seems scared to go over there.  

Louie is acting weird and seemed to be following or herding a bunch of large ducks, mostly Cinnamon's Twin and her boyfriends, into an area where I've never seen geese (but where the swans often went).  The ducks went into the brush and Louie followed, cooing.  

And, finally, here's Bigboi, sleeping in the water with the coots.  I think he knows he blends in very well with the coots.

Early in the morning

I took some early morning pictures at the lake this morning.  There are people who come and feed the birds right before sunrise, so they get into one big group.  I just hope nobody gets smooshed and hope the ducklings will be OK later on.  But, the birds have been getting fed there for years.

Spoonface (Bossy)

Female wood duck

Jill the goose

Pepper

Quacker and her boy

Three Musketeers

Cinnamon Teal

Juvenile western gull

The turkey vulture below must have slept under one of his friends.  He came down to the lake to wash up, but was nervous of all the people around.

Goose fight!

Louie and Jill are still fighting over at Lake Murray.  I think Louie is frustrated with her not responding to his constant flirting.  I think I did see her nod her head at him a couple of times, though.

Louie pursuing Jill

When Louie grabs her, she grabs him back and kicks him.  Then, they begin fighting with their wings:

After a second or two, one of the Canada geese starts to attack Louie.

In this fight, a third goose attacked the Canada goose after he grabbed Jill's back feathers.

I found out, though, that Jack (Jill's mate) was not taken away to the vet's and that he, most likely, was stolen from the lake.

Other than that, nothing much is going on.

Northern shoveler

Gadwall

Clark's grebe

Kestrel

3 lesser goldfinches

Boat dock duck gang

Happy Thanksgiving from the Duckies!

Peek-a-boo!

Happy Thanksgiving from all the duckies at the lake I saw today!  It sure was a busy place despite being closed.

Bossy Duck

Bossy's older look-a-like

The dumped ducks in a different area of the lake than usual.

Gadwall; they were giving me a hard time and wouldn't let me take their picture.

Louie

Pepper was actually out trying to compete for mates.  He even tried to do honk-snorts, but needs more practice.

This might be either Pepper's brother (the gray duckling) or his cousin:

And, three of the ducks project wildlife dropped off last summer.

Bigboi

And Curly!

More ducklings!

Pepper

The boat dock ducklings are all doing very well! However, we are having a very cold and wet storm passing through right now. Currently, the oldest ducklings are just under 3 weeks old and just starting to get feather shafts and are already producing oil. The younger ducklings are about 2 weeks old and one family is about one week old. I am not worried about the one week olds as they can be warmed up by their mom. But, the 7 large ducklings may have trouble keeping warm during the next two days because they're too big to fit under their mom. I hope they will all be OK.

Anyway, here are a few duckling photos:

Caramel still has three of her own ducklings and 1 of Butterscotch's ducklings:



One of the tiniest 5 day old ducklings:



All the following photos are of the 7 ducklings that Peaches is taking care of:







The two Chinese ganders are being constantly harassed by the Canada gander who chased them all the way to the other side of the parking lot:



The ring-billed gull was being harassed by the crows:



And, here's a shot of a lesser goldfinch. I still haven't been able to photograph the robin nearby.





Killdeer chick update:

I did not see any of the killdeer chicks, but I thought I heard Spike and maybe Squiggy in the same general area that I've always seen them. But, I think the other two are nearby. I hope to see them in a few days when they should be flying.