Bossy Reappears

Bossy duck was seen this morning.  I am sure it was him because I saw what looked like a ring around the back of his head.  However, the ring looks very faded and has lost most of its orange color.

Here he is with a friend:

Also with Bossy was a redhead duck.  Redheads live here all year, but rarely breed.  I saw this girl a couple of weeks ago, but then she disappeared.

This young duck might be one of Fish Food Mama's first brood this year:

And, this is the duckling whom I think might be one of the original 8 from the "Snowies", a very faithful pair of ducks.  I think the parents might be Appleyard or Snowy Mallard mixes.  I am positive that this is one of their offspring, but they may have had two others survive as well.  He is 9 weeks old and, already, very large.

And, here is Yellowcheeks with Zippy and Skippy, now about 6 weeks old.  Skippy is sound asleep in this photo.  That's a baby coot on the right side.

Their possible sibling, the "Hot Duckling" is said to also be doing very well, though I did see her today.  I think I figured out how she got over there.  Ducklingnapper has been seen in that area several times since the duckling went missing.   Ducklingnapper probably stole her, but there was another mother with her own ducklings there around the same time.  So, the stolen duckling was, again, stolen by the other mother who, eventually, lost her own ducklings.  

And, I saw this young killdeer all by him/herself.  I thought it was a girl a while back, but now I'm thinking it might be a boy.  Still a very quiet little guy.

Today, I did not see Pepper, the broken winged duck that used to be the black duckling from last year.  This is the first time he's gone missing since last December or January.  I worry about him because of his broken wing.  His grandma, Fish Food Mama (and, now that I think about it, she might actually be his mother) is also gone and so is Bigboi.  I hope they're all together somewhere safe.  Last year, Pepper disappeared at this time of year, but back then he was still a duckling, sorta.  Bigboi is one of Fish Food Mama's favorite males.

Busy day for Martha and the kids: Visitors

Martha (back left), Shy and Tiny (front, right)

Today was a busy day in George's territory and it was hard to figure out what, exactly, was going on or who was doing what. First, I think, it started out with the M6 dad and Shy stopping by on the north side of the main parkinglot during the foggy part of the morning. Shy was actually very curious about everything, but her dad was wound up and kept doing alarm and check calls every time he saw any humans in his sight.

I guess Martha and Tiny heard the noise because they came over and investigated. Martha pretty much took to making aggressive displays toward Shy and her dad and Tiny mostly tagged along for support, but didn't get too involved. I think most of Martha's aggressive behavior was toward the female, possibly thinking her a rival for her mate.

Martha, I think

On the other side of the parking lot, I first spotted Killer by himself. But, later, it would seem that Martha and Firecracker were there, too, Martha having flown over as I walked back. Martha almost immediately took her daughter away from there before Tiny and the M6 dad flew over with Shy.

Firecracker with the ducks

Killer was very calm and casual, taking a bath and grooming himself. Shy came over to him and one of them began to make aggressive displays, I think it was Killer. Shy did not respond with the same motions, but one time she looked like she was going to give Killer a nip when he turned around while doing a dip-down display, but thought twice about it. She seemed interested and curious about Killer and even made a couple of clucks and displays at him, too, but not very aggressive nor did it seem as though she was flirting with him.

Shy

Killer, before his bath

A little way's away, Shy's dad was making his way towards the couple. But, Tiny was making it very clear to him that he did not belong there by making territorial "kill-dee" calls at him. I left after that as these things can take hours, or days to resolve. It looks like these two families may be starting to come together. However, they're still young, so it might be several months before anything happens.

I think this is Tiny

M6 (Beautiful) Dad "I'm just looking out for my baby girl!"

Across the lake, I could hear several killdeer doing alarm calls through the fog, but I did not go over there to see what was going on with the rest of the lake killdeer.