Down to 5 ducklings, 1 sick

Sadly, Mama lost two of her ducklings some time on Monday or Tuesday.  The more lanky black duckling and a regular yellow duckling, whom I've noticed is a little weaker and not as zippy than the others, was gone.  At first, everything seemed to be good with the remaining five.  But, then, I saw something strange.

At first, this one duckling seemed to get stuck in the rocks when the ducklings were there feeding.  Then, he started lagging behind the group, way behind, and swimming in circles, alone.  He was way far from the others, easy picking for a gull.

I've seen this behavior before in ducklings and other waterfowl, it's not good and a sign of illness or a neurological problem.  He did make it to shore and I tried to catch him, but when I did, he was suddenly "cured" and ran up to Mama.  I told him that if he could keep up with the group, he can stay and I won't try to catch him anymore.

While his siblings eagerly ran around looking for food, he just stood there with his tail tucked in, not eating as seen in the next photo (that's him on the left).  I thought I saw him drink some water.  He really wanted to be under his mama, though.  He also seemed to have trouble with his balance.

The other ducklings were extremely busy trying to find food.  These two seem to be best friends right now and have been hanging out together since they were a few days old.

Mama couldn't stay still or brood the sick duckling because this juvenile hawk was hanging out in the area, making her nervous.  The gulls were harassing him while he sat on the pole and eventually chased him off.  Mama kept quacking as if to say "Hawk! Hawk!" to her little ducklings:

Mama took her ducklings away and I did see the sick duckling try to stay under Mama as much as he could, but she kept moving.  Each time she did, he would go right back under her, but she didn't fully brood him.  However, that seemed to help as, afterward, he seemed better and was keeping up with everyone just fine.

Later, when the sun was out and warmer, I saw the family far away from that spot, the sick duckling was acting normally and swimming with the group.  I think he's in the middle of the group in this photo, possibly the one with his eyes closed:

Here are the two best friends again:

The sick duckling, again, swam away from the group and closer to me.  It was almost as if he was telling me that he's OK and I don't need to try to catch him anymore.

As they swam off, I couldn't really tell which one was the sick one.  I hope it was hypothermia and not something the other ducklings could catch or some kind of food poisoning.  I have a feeling, though, I won't see him again and Mama will, soon,  be down to 4 ducklings.  She will have lost half her brood, something which I've never seen happen to her before. If it was any other mother duck, I would just say, "oh well, that's nature and the life of ducklings."  But, this is Mama and she never loses more than one or two.

But, I have some good news!  The two ducklings hatched about 5 weeks ago, are still alive and doing well.  I can no longer tell which was the yellow one, but I think it is the one in back.  Both are still very small and appear to be females.

Big stretch!

Yellowcheeks seems to have lost her yellow cheeks and has gotten more round.  She seems to be a very proud mama.

Stretching again!  You can see how small they are compared to adult ducks.  But, they seem healthy.

We also have another baby coot:

And, it appears that the mama duck (mate to Snowy, the snowy mallard), who had eight ducklings about two months ago, had at least one survive, perhaps two or three, I'm not sure.  I keep forgetting to take photos.  They were hanging out with mom and dad this morning.  One has become a very large male duckling, about the size of his dad.  The other two seem more normal.

New ducklings!

Saw several new baby ducks today, at Lake Murray in San Diego, all about a week old, I think.  Some had eye stripes that went all the way to the back of their heads except one.

Their little tail feathers are in pin, I think, which is why I guessed them to be about a week old.  They were also at least double the size of a hatchling.

I think this is the female who was trying to steal her sister's/mother ducklings a month ago. I also think that this is the mate of the male snowy mallard.  They are very faithful to each other and it will be interesting to see how the ducklings turn out.

She took them, immediately, to an area far away and I didn't see them later.

Bye bye, babies!

I also saw the mom with the two older ducklings, too.  They seem to have grown a little.  It is very hot today and it might be very hot for the next few days.  Plus, possibly, thunderstorms.   I don't know what kind of effect the weather will have on all these little ones.

Pepper's wing has healed a little, but he can't seem to move his pinion joint too much.  As a result, his primaries have become worn and stripped.  Hurt wing's wing is also the same way.   He is still moving his wing around a bit, though.

Update on the brown pelicans:

The adult brown pelican was found on the boat docks at Lake Murray, very sick and covered with ants.  Sea World came down and took it away.  Today, two juveniles were seen and here is a photo of one just after he caught a large fish.

Two juvenile willets came to visit.  

They were just there to find some snails and bugs to eat.

 Saw a couple of pretty white pigeons.

And, finally, a juvenile northern mockingbird:

Lake update 6/12/2012

Smudge

I went to the lake Saturday and I didn't bring my camera.  I saw that Junior's nest has hatched and Junior and his family has completely disappeared.  Today, I saw only one of the juveniles from Killer's territory over there.  Later, I could hear Junior screaming as if he was defending his chicks, but I looked all over and couldn't find the family.

Meanwhile, Smudge and her sister are still in the ballfields.  They seem totally relaxed.  Their dad, Pollux, has been trying hard to get them to fly around with him, but they just ignore him.  Smudge's sister wasn't being very co-operative with me photographing her.

Smudge

The two oldest ducklings at the lake still don't have their wing feathers:

This is pretty odd for ducklings over two months old.

I couldn't find Neo today to compare, but when I last saw him, he was beginning to grow out his primaries and he's at least two weeks behind these girls in age.  I sure hope that they grow soon as the two red-tailed hawks are almost ready to fledge:

The mom of five ducklings have moved to a new area and are feeding on a big algae bloom.  Mom was a little upset about the cormorant activity there:

I saw this mom with three ducklings on Saturday and all three are still alive today.  I think this is Neo's older sister from last year that looks exactly like her mom.  She was stolen and raised away from her mom by another female:

The were eating algae, too:

I saw three baby coots in the area where I saw two last year in which one got eaten by one of the herons.  One of the babies was afraid of me and went and hid.  All three babies appeared to have hatched at about the same time:

This juvenile black-crowned night heron was watching them.  They were moving closer and closer to him, seemingly not to notice.  He sure looked like he was excited about having a baby coot for lunch today:

But, luckily, mom and dad coot saw him and gave him a good wallop.  All three chicks were saved.

The baby great blue herons were in their nest, if you can see them in this photo:

They were very concerned about this great egret nearby in a tree.  I have no idea where their parents are hunting nowadays.

Pepper is looking beautiful, but still has a broken wing (on the other side), though it looks partially healed.

Spoonface (Bossy) and his ring are still around.  At least things haven't gotten worse for him.  He is one year old now.

Near Spoonface was a family of coots, also:

Quacker, the flying cayuga seems to have been missing for at least three to four weeks now.  People are concerned about her.  Quacker flies exceptionally well, about as good as the wild mallards.  Her boyfriend was possibly seen, once, in the area, but not lately.  It is possible that Quacker has moved on to another location, or, perhaps, she went to sit on a nest somewhere, especially since her boyfriend has also not been seen.  She has been at the lake for over two years now.