Goodbye Bitey, hello baby ducks!

Bitey, the Pekin duck pictured above, is gone.  I think someone might have taken him.  I am trying to think good thoughts and hope he's in a happy home and being treated well.  He was getting a little thin last time I saw him.  It's good that he's gone now because Neo's mom is probably ready to come out with her ducklings, which should be hatching any time now.  Good lucky Bitey!  I love ya!

There was also a white bunny dropped off near where Bitey was at the lake last weekend, but I didn't see him, either.

I saw the first ducklings of the season at Lake Murray today.  I think that's Butterscotch (one of the "Fish Food Ducklings" from a few years ago) with them and I think they're 5-7 days old.  Last year, she lost all her ducklings at about this age.   She has 10 of them right now, but I can see that two of them don't look so great right now.  She's being very cautious and careful of them. Hopefully, she will be able to raise a few this year.

I also saw the first three baby coots in the same area, too:

And, a beautiful gadwall and his gadwall mate.  He's nowhere near as beautiful as Gaddy, though.

Gaddy, I heard, is still fighting over his mallard girlfriend not far from where I last saw him.  I'm hoping for ducklings from them, too.  I suspect that all his girlfriend's ducklings will be all mallard because she sneaks off and mates with the mallard males, often.  I guess that green head is irresistible.

Domestic duck update and a gull with a fish

Yet another female domestic duck has gone missing.  This time, it was a healthy female Pekin.  When she first started mating, she was very scared and always kept her head way up over the water.  But, she relaxed a little bit as time went on, but still kept her head up above the water.  I guess it wasn't good enough.  Both she and one of the Swedish ducks are missing from that big flock.  I hope they're together on some nest or something.   Another female duck has been burying herself in thickets and doing other things to get the males to stop mating with her.  She's really beat up, but still alive. A single male tries to protect her, but often can't.

Across the lake, Bumblefoot is still going strong, but is very lonely if she doesn't have any Pekin ducks near her.  The new Pekin ducks have moved nearby and seem curious about her, but prefer people and are extremely hungry.  I was hoping that Bumblefoot would show them around, but they haven't made friends with her, yet.  Bitey is also doing well and I think his hormones are calming down a little.  All other domestic ducks are doing well except I haven't seen Cinnamon's Twin's Twin, her mate and "Spot", the Welsh Harlequin, since that incident last Sunday when the drakes were ganging up on her.  They all hang out together, so they might just be away from the area.

There are now three baby herons in the nest and I think the two bigger ones are trying to push the smallest one out, but he's very strong for a little guy, and a fighter.  Here's the biggest one, the other two sank down in the nest.

And, I watched this western gull with a prized fish.  Gulls love fish more than anything else in the world, it seems.  Here he is trying to position the fish:

"I got a fish!"

Down the hatch!

Nope, I guess not.

Needs more washing:

And, finally, a photo of Smudge who lets me get really close to her as does her mate.  I didn't even see her mate even though I passed within about ten feet of him.

Still no ducklings, yet.  Neo's mom is traditionally the first one to have ducklings at this lake, usually around the 20th, but I don't think I've seen her this year (I may have seen her a month ago, but I'm not sure).  The other mother who had the ducklings on April 10th last year has not been seen in the last week and will probably not be having them as early as she did last year.

Bad news about Neo

I have bad news about Neo.  I've been seeing this duck with a hurt wing for almost a week now, but never got a good look at him until today.

Someone was feeding him with Indy and another small duck that might be Indy's brother along with Sweetie. I recognized him as Neo immediately, but wasn't a 100% sure and I really didn't want it to be him.  So, I took a photo to compare with Neo's other photos.  Sadly, yes, this does look like Neo in all aspects.  He will be one year old in a few weeks.

There are several ducks with hurt or broken wings at Lake Murray that have been flightless for over a year or more, so Neo still has a chance to live on.  I suspect he got hurt fighting with his mother's mate.  His mother may be on a nest nearby because it is that time of year when she nests.  Or, maybe Bitey got a hold of him.  But, I doubt it because the mallards like to boss Bitey around.  It doesn't look as bad as Pepper's or Hurt Wing's wings, but I haven't been able to see under it.  I'm hoping it's just sprained.

I've noticed that drakes with broken or hurt wings are rarely successful at breeding.

You might remember Neo from my Youtube Slideshow:  Neo, the Duckling that Lived!

Bitey's close call with bad humans:

Speaking of Bitey, I visited him today and gave him some food.  He also got another cup of food from someone else, so he got lots to eat this afternoon.  However, a lady told me that just before I arrived, several young men were surrounding him, feeding him something, and making comments that might indicate that they fed him poison or were going to hurt him.  They were also filming him with their cell phones.  When the lady came up, they were very rude to her, but they left.

I watched over Bitey for an hour and a half and I didn't see him acting unusual (for Bitey at least).  It's very possible that they were planning on doing something to Bitey, but the lady interrupted them.  I really need to get him a home, soon, before someone hurts or kills him.

Update on the domestics and killdeer

The bitey duck is still there and he's still bitey.  However, if you feed him promptly, he is not so bitey.  And, I've noticed that he only likes certain people, so the general public are not in any real danger of being bitten from what I've seen, unless some kid runs up and tries to chase him.  I gave him his food in a small bowl to which he spilled a third of it and then ate the rest, pushing the bowl around.  He then turned around and ate what was on the ground.  When I picked up the bowl, he tapped my shoe, but did not bite.

This scaup pigged out on the rice, too, when I moved away.  It's funny watching scaup walking on land.  After all the food was gone, the Pekin and the scaup were following me around.  I tried to lead the Pekin to some other Pekins, but as soon as he saw them, he turned around and went the other way.  Later, the Pekin's friend came to check up on him, but was detoured by two fishermen, so the two never got together.

Jill has been all alone lately.  I have no idea where her Canada goose friend and his white Chinese hybrid goose friend went to.  They probably went to a new place to eat and I just haven't found them, yet.  I thought those other two were both males, but maybe I was wrong and there's a female in that pair and maybe one is on a nest.

Louie comes up to Jill sometimes and makes googly eyes at her.  I think she's warming up to him and often grazes when he's nearby.

Louie often herds Jill to new places.  "Picked on" the Canada gander still hangs around, but keeps his distance when Louie is with Jill.  But, Jill and Louie are not a pair because if anything separates them or if Louie goes away, Jill does not follow.

The baby Canada goose (now two years old) just swims around calling, but doesn't hang around anyone most of the time.

 I saw some wigeons who look like they're starting to molt.  The mallards haven't started molted and they're late in doing so.  They should have started molting by now.

There were three wigeons by the lake walking path:

Smudge and her mate:

There are two male killdeer hanging out in Junior's territory.  One acts like Killer Jr, so I think he might be Killer's son, George IV.  The other might be his brother, or could be George III who generally travels with Junior who should be arriving soon.

And, I have a baby hummingbird in my yard.  Or, I did until a couple of days ago.  I think he's all on his own now and his mom has a new nest.

Bigboi, the Cayuga duck seems a lot better today.  Big Daddy is hanging out with Cinnamon.  I saw no sign of Oreo at all and I looked all over for him.  But, I did see him last week, so he might be OK.

Lesser goldfinches and sick ducks

Early Christmas morning brought lesser goldfinches.  This male wasn't afraid of me at all:

These females weren't afraid of me either, until the sunshade on my camera fell off and they flew away, but the male stayed and called for them.

This duck has a very cute bill.  I've never seen a bill marked like that.  I think she's a young duck.  I was sitting down and she walked right behind me and chattered away.

For the last few days, I've been getting help for this crested pekin female.  I was told she might have ascites, or water on the belly.  The first day I saw her in trouble, she was very sleepy and looked sick.

When I saw her yesterday, she looked a bit better, but was still struggling.  I did see her run out of the water when someone brought some food.  However, someone said she suddenly started limping and then collapsed on her belly and scooted herself back into the water.  When I saw her, she was acting like something was wrong with her legs, but got better as she continued swimming.  She also put her wings and tail back into normal position for a moment.

If it's ascites, she will NOT get better and will die within days.  If it is not, then I don't know.

Update:  It took me a while to get some help for her, but she was rescued on 12/29!  She is said to be extremely thin, but other than something being wrong with her leg, she seems to be OK.

Across the lake from that duck, I thought that this female on the left had a bad bumble on her foot.  If she does, she may also die from that and, perhaps, infect the other ducks.  That's her mate on the right:

Someone said that might not be a bumble, but a callous.  It's making her limp, but she seems to be a very happy girl and in love with her mate.

I'm sad to report that this small duck who has been at the lake for several years is either sick or injured.  He was fine a week or two ago.  He is acting normally, but is all hunched over.  He might have been attacked by a larger duck or even a predator.  I don't know how old he is, but he might recover.  He's probably a call duck mix and is just about the smallest mallard-derived duck at the lake.

15+ ducks dumped in one day

This morning, I found 15 new, terrified, domestic ducks dumped on the lake.  A few of them had those cute crests on them.  They extremely scared of me and after they went into the water, they stayed there for hours.  I understood why when I saw a big pile of white feathers nearby.  Apparently, one of the Pekins had been caught by a predator.

Across the lake, the usually duck brigade waited to be fed, though I think they had eaten already.

Zippy was seen by herself over there, and possibly Skippy, too.  They were fully feathered with their wing feathers, etc., so I think they're off on their own now. They are 2.5 months old.

I think this might be Neo, still not sure, but it sure looks like him.

And, the female redhead is still sticking around:

Shy and her mate are still around and Shy's mate still loves to yell at me.  But, when Shy is not around, all he does is make a pitiful deet.  For some reason, he doesn't follow his mate over where all the other killdeer are.  I can hear her calling to him, but he mostly doesn't want to go over there unless he has to.

Not a lot of killdeer for this time of year.  Mostly Shy and her mate, Pollux and his three babies, and Miracle and her one baby.  Sometimes, I see Killer Jr. there, but not a whole lot.  There's also no ruddy ducks or yellow-rumped warblers there, yet, and they should be there by now.

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!

Another duck rescue, and more duckling photos!

This morning, I found Louie the gander with three new Pekin ducks that look like they had just gotten dropped off.  I thought they were two males and one female.  Louie was standing over the one that looked like a female who was very injured and couldn't walk.  I think I saw Louie make an aggressive move towards her, but he may have been protecting her, it's hard to say.  I thought, at first, she was over-bred by the two males, but now I'm wondering if Louie attacked her as the two males later turned out to be females.

I separated her and managed to find someone to come down and get her.  At first, we couldn't find her, but, later, I found that she had gone back to her two sisters who were panting in the warm day.  Unfortunately, the person who took her didn't have room to take all three.  So, instead of taking two and leaving one alone, we decided it was best to let the two healthier ones stay there.  I am worried about the other two as they seemed really hot and seemed to have no desire to go into the water even though they knew where the water was. When their sister left the lake in a van, they ran around quacking after her for a few minutes.

Here is a picture of her:

The gadwall is spending time across the lake.  He seems to really like this female mallard:

I also saw "Not Pepper":

But, I didn't see the real Pepper and it worries me because it's been a while since he has missed a day where he has been seen.

I think this might be Miracle:

And, Killer Jr.  But, it could also be the male that was in the ballfield and another, unrelated female.  They seemed to be especially bothered by this guy fishing in the area in his inner tube type of float.  I don't know if they just find his flotation device strange or what.

Now for the ducklings.  Fish Food Mama's ducklings are all alive and well and two weeks old today.  However, several cats were seen hunting only ten or fifteen feet away from where the family was feeding this morning.

I also saw the mom with four ducklings (now down to three) and I saw Neo who is also doing well, but didn't have my camera at the time I saw them.  Neo's mom's mate is being a little aggressive with Neo, though.  He is a month old now and will probably be completely independent in a few more weeks.