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.

Baby Season 2017

Duckling season seems to be peaking now. What's been nice is that a lot of the ducklings are surviving a lot longer than they used to. The blue herons have all fledged from their nests and I haven't seen the black-crowned herons all season. The gulls are behaving themselves so far, but I think they may be afraid of being injured by the mama ducks. One of the gulls was so injured, possibly by a mama duck, that it could no longer fly.

I compiled a lot of the photos and videos of the ducklings for this month since the time I last posted.

We have a new set of four goslings at Lake Murray. I think we are not really going to get anymore goslings as it's becoming late in the season.

Miss Butterscotch's ducklings are all grown up and almost ready to fly. Butterscotch is getting her groove back with her male duck friends. Her ducklings are the older ones in the video.

Here are a couple more duckling photos I just took today:

The Two

The single duckling below is being watched closely by the duckling-eating gull. But the mama duck is very experienced and successful, so I don't think she would let him get eaten without a fight.

The Single Duckling

Dumped Ducks:

It's that time of year again where people dump their Easter ducklings to get eaten by coyotes at the lake.  These three nearly died of dehydration until someone threw them into the lake. They're still having a hard time getting adjusted to living at the lake, but at least they're not thirsty anymore. I have a feeling they were kept in a cage or in a home and have no clue what to do.

These two were dropped off yesterday and seem to have a handle on things. Runner Duck wants to rape the female, though, but he hasn't figured out how to get past the big male Pekin.

RIP:

The coyotes have been very active and we've lost several ducks in the last few weeks:

The droopy-winged brown and white female had been missing for a week and a half before I found her body, so she may have been already dead when the coyotes found her. The gray one was doing well and getting grayer, but I didn't see her as well today. But, she may be OK.

The female Chinese swan goose, dropped off almost two years ago, was killed shortly after the droopy-winged duck. Her mate is now spending time trying to stay close to some of the older geese.  I think he's pretty scared. Her egg was still in her nest when I saw the feather pile.

Ah, Spring is for Ducklings

Though I haven't been at Lake Murray the last few days, when I last saw them, these three ducklings were still plugging along. Each day their mama was taking them on longer and longer distances, even going beyond the fence line. They were constantly moving. On the last day I saw them, I believe she had taken them out of the area. This was her same pattern the last two years. If you haven't seen them, it's possible they are no longer visiting the parking lot area regularly. You may go a while without seeing them and depending on the time of day you visit, you may not see them again until they're fully feathered.

Meanwhile, Miss Una has done what was expected and moved her ducklings down to the other end of the lake. She managed to keep two of them so far. Last time I saw her, she was being hassled by the drakes. I only could truly see one duckling, but I think I saw the other one duck in the reeds.

Miss Una's mother was last seen with three ducklings. The next day, I saw two all by themselves without their mother. However, as I was watching them, they completely disappeared. There were no predators in the area. I saw a woman bending down at the water's edge, but I think the ducklings were not nearby, and even if they were, they would not be easy to catch.

Sadly, after my last post with the gosling photos, Squeaker's little baby disappeared.

Other birds are still hanging around and should be migrating soon. This is an eared grebe in breeding plumage.

Least sandpipers visiting:

There is a female spotted sandpiper being rather co-operative. A male is hanging out nearby and they may be bonded mates or a new mate for her to travel back to the breeding areas with.

Duck Rescue:

Last Sunday, I came across these two Cayuga ducks hiding in the brush near the front entrance. They were dehydrated and very hungry. The female was in distress as well. I was going to introduce them to the water, but decided that, since there was a female and they tend to die real fast here, I would catch both and take them with me to see if I could find a home for them. 

The male is extremely gorgeous with a LOT of green. This photo does no justice to his gorgeous colors. He was quite the gentleman to his girlfriend and his personality was mellow as is common for the breed. The female duck was a diva and made lots of demands with me. She would scream unless you made her happy. Then, she would be very quiet. Because I live in an apartment with a strict no pets policy, and I have allergies, I couldn't keep them. So, I took them to the animal shelter. After a five-day hold (for health and to give the owner a chance to come get them), they were put up for adoption. They were adopted within hours of being listed.

They left me an egg as a present.

New Baby Ducks at Lake Murray, Today's Picture 5/25/2016

Today's picture is of a new set of ducklings in the same area where Miss Una and her mother kept their ducklings until they went somewhere else. This may be Miss Una's aunt. In case you're wondering, Miss Una's mom and aunt are probably direct descendants of Fish Food Mama who is also mother to Peaches, Butterscotch, Caramel, Pepper, Indy and about 30 other adult ducks at Lake Murray.

Miss Una's mom and aunt are likely two of the 10 ducklings Fish Food Mama successfully raised in 2013. All the females in that brood look very similar to each other and a lot like their mom.

A new wave of ducklings

There seems to be a wave of ducklings going on right now at Lake Murray.  I think the cooler, less dry weather has helped with nesting.  Better late than never.  It will be interesting to see if we have more late hatching ducklings this year.

I found this mother with 8 hatchlings all scattered around very early in the morning:

Here she is when there was more light out.

These three ducklings were without a mother, but didn't seem worried.  They just continued on feeding.  I could hear mom quacking from far away.

There she is!  She flew back and they all swam up to her:

Little troublemaker and his six siblings are still around.  He's grown a bit and is more than half feathered:

Here's his mom and two of his siblings (a third was under water):

The nervous mama was down to four ducklings, but they sure were cute.  She was nervous of me at first:

One duckling really like his mom:

But, decided I was OK enough to come up to me:

Here she is with three of them, one was hiding behind her:

Here is the one:

Some good news!  Big Sissy was seen very early this morning feeding with Little Sissy and Runner Duck:

Then, as soon as it was light, she went back into hiding: