Baby season and summer birds

It's baby season and there seems to be plenty of breeding going on at Lake Murray lately.  While I haven't seen any ducklings for a couple of weeks, I saw plenty of other birds.  The baby osprey were flapping their wings and the heron chicks are getting big, though a bit far from fledging.  

Here's the first baby coot I've seen.  I saw one other that was all by himself:

Lots of baby pied-billed grebes around all of a sudden.  My camera didn't seem to like the lighting on these two fuzzy bodies:

Two handsome mallard drakes hanging out.  Most of the ducks I see now are bachelor mallards because most females are nesting.

One-foot ate and drank too much and is gaping because he couldn't breathe.  He was alright, though.

Two newly dumped ducks:

Baby Blue was very interested in both of them.  I think he wanted to fight the male who was much larger than him and he probably wanted the female, too.

I also saw some terns returning, two Forsters and one Caspian.  Bob2 was also there, all covered with spots, but she refused to let me take her photo, as usual.  She used to not mind me photographing her, but I think the increase in activity on the shore has made her weary.

Graphic pic ahead:

I found these pieces of a Cooper's hawk near a tree where Big Mama used to hunt.  I've seen her son and daughter hunting there from time to time.  This might be one of them.  I suspect a hawk or owl got him.  Here is what's left.  You can see the skull with the hooked bill, and part of a wing.

In other sad news, someone told me that they found a large duck carcass near where Oreo hangs out.  She said it looked like a mallard.  Oreo's gang is alright.  I even saw Stumpy, whom I hadn't seen for at least a year.  I couldn't find Buffy's son, though.  Also, two Pekins are missing, possibly Mr and Mrs. Pekin and it's possible that the carcass was Mr. Pekin because some people don't know the difference between a Pekin and a mallard.  But, I suspect that Mr. and Mrs. Pekin are together somewhere, staying away from the other ducks because of the condition of the Mrs who was near death when I saw her.

Lake update 7/9/2013

I only went out to Lake Murray for a short time and my camera battery died, so I only could get a few photos.

Snowie's little weaking

I was surprised to see that Snowie's ducklings had made it to the two week old mark.  She does nothing to warn them of danger or control them and they just go everywhere they want.  One of them reminds me of Pepper's brother.

Here is the latest photo of Cow and two of her boyfriends.  She is the only female to survive from that big group of ducks dumped off last year:

This green heron was near the ducklings, but they weren't in any danger from him:

A very quiet juvenile pied-billed grebe:

I think this is a recently fledged Brewer's blackbird, though the blue around the feathers is throwing me off.  I think it's his chick down:

After this, my camera battery died.  I wanted to show a photo of the black Indian runner duck that I found a week ago who showed up in another area.  He's doing well and completely ignores me.  I think he thinks he's a wild duck.  Also, the mother with the two ducklings that the kids were throwing rocks at also moved to a new area and the ducklings are HUGE.  They aren't a whole lot older than Snowie's ducklings, but are at least twice the size and beginning to feather well.