Baby update

Though I did take a lot of photos a few days ago, I didn't think everyone would want to hear about all the ducklings I saw.  But, here's today's post that also has a lot of ducklings.  The one in the photo above was, more or less, alone and was near where there were two ducklings a week ago.  I don't think he was one of those ducklings, but a new one.  I do think his mother was there as there seemed to be one female he stayed close to and sorta kept an eye on him.

The mama below has four ducklings that I also saw on Sunday:

Here's a photo of her on Sunday:

there was a second mother there with four ducklings, too:

This one was by himself for the longest time.  I don't think he's that healthy:

So far, I only have one definite male in Fish Food Mama's group. Here are some of her daughters:

In the middle, there is one definite male out of the ten:

The duckling on the left of the next photo always separates herself from everyone and seems lethargic.  I don't think she's feeling well:

I also saw four baby coots.  Since coots regularly commit infanticide for various reasons, I'm surprosed to see this many babies this far along.  It's been a long time since I've seen a family of more than two babies at this lake:

Here's two of them begging for food:

And, one getting fed (or having food shoved at him):

I got my first least bittern photo:

This snowy egret was cool:

The magpie duck dropped off last month is doing OK.  I still don't know what happened to his gray crested friend who disappeared soon after he was dumped.

Oreo is still alive:

And, I saw this strange rumpless duck.  He can hardly walk, but otherwise seems normal.  I *may* have seen him before.  He's more deformed than injured or ill.

And, finally, we have to say "good bye" to Donald, the oldest duck at the lake.  Something got him as he's now gone and there were feathers everywhere on Sunday.  It's especially sad because he seemed very depressed at losing his friend Buffy2 last month and was, finally, starting to act like himself again.   He had been there at least four years.  Bigboi, the Cayuga duck, is now the oldest duck there.

Still no sign of Snowy, but her mate was also missing today.

Canal Mama duck lives! And, Fish Food Mama with 10 half-grown ducklings?

It appears that "Canal Mama" didn't fall victim to coyotes.  I found her in the canal this morning not far from where the blood and feathers were.  She still had four ducklings.

I think I saw Butterscotch flying around, but did not see her nearly 6 week old ducklings.  It's possible that she has moved to a new area or the ducklings are off on their own.

I saw this brood of ten half-grown ducklings and their mama, now a month old.  I see a few males, but mostly females, so far.  We shall see as they get older.

I think this might be Fish Food Mama as she's the only mother duck I know that can raise ten ducklings to this age at this lake.  Her face and bill markings are a little off.  but, when I saw her looking at me, later, she did seem a lot like Mama.  She also recognized me.

At the time I saw her, it looked like a fisherman in a boat might have been harassing her.  But, I think she was OK as she's one smart mama duck. I don't know if the harassment was intentional or he was just being a jerk.

I also found the black and white duck dumped a couple of weeks ago way across the lake hanging out with the mallards whom seem to like him.  No sign of the gray duck.  Also, Big Daddy has been missing for a long time.  If I don't see him by the end of the month, I may declare him deceased.  Pepper has also been missing for a week or two, too.  The crested female rouen is missing as well.  And, several Pekin ducks are missing, but I think they were all piled up in the reeds.

There's still a mystery as to which duck was caught by the coyotes.

Ducklings live!

4 ducklings sleeping

Four of the ten ducklings hatched last month are still alive and here's the proof:

I did not see any sign of the six I also saw in the same area, but I think I saw a new batch of brand new ducklings, perhaps from Fish Food Mama.  I was too far away to get photos of them.  If they're Mama's ducklings, chances are I'll see them again next time I'm there.

Neo and Zippy are very close and Zippy only seems to want Neo around and no other males.

I think these might be Indy and his brother hanging out with Neo, but Zippy chases them off if they get too close.  There were two other male mallards there, but Indy has a super-straight bill, so I think the one in back might be him.

Lots of green herons around.  I saw several babies in the reeds, and several adults flying around.  Here is one adult:

Another adult was sitting nearby and a third or fourth was somewhere else:

And, I saw three spotted sandpipers, most likely a female and two males.  The female was the boss and every time she flew away, she called the others to follow.  I couldn't get a photo of any of them because they wouldn't let me get within 50 feet of them before they flew off.   That's unusual as spotted sandpipers usually aren't that shy.

And, the baby blue herons are just about ready to fledge as are the osprey.

And, I found out that the dumped black and white duck was acting very scared and following people around last week.  That could be why he disappeared.  I'm hoping someone took him and his friend home.  They weren't acting like that when I saw them or I would have gotten them out of there ASAP.  Something must have scared him.

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.

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.

RIP ducklings (Illness suspected)

When I first arrived, I was absolutely shocked to see that Fish Food Mama had only one duckling left.  At first glance, he appeared to be fairly healthy.  Except, I did notice that he had no interest in eating.  Mama took him to some slimy rocks with yummy algae and bugs and made exaggerated feeding motions, but all the duckling wanted to do was hide.  Mama was acting strange, too, constantly quacking and making faces at me to tell me to back off even when I wasn't any closer than I usually am.

When I got home and looked at the photos, I could see that the duckling wasn't looking healthy at all.

Something was wrong with his face and eyes, it was almost as if he had a hard time keeping his eyes open.

I noticed, in several photos, that he swam with his eyes constantly closed like the other one that was sick before.  Here, he swam up to Mama, bumped into her, and grabbed onto some of her feathers.  This may have been a sign of co-ordination problems like the other one had on Wednesday.

At one time, Mama flew away, abandoning her duckling and began flirting with the boys on the other side of the parking lot.  But, her duckling began to scream for her and she returned.  However, later in the day, Mama was duckling-less and hanging out with the boys.  She seemed to be acting normal, though I could hear a warning quack come out of her when gulls flew close by.  Before I saw the photos of the last duckling, I was mad at Mama for abandoning her baby and possibly not doing enough to protect the others, but now I know what happened was beyond her control.

If it was illness, I hope it's not something contagious and makes Mama or any of the other ducks sick, too.  I am hoping that Mama will have another brood or two next year.

In better news, the young duck on the right of these four is, most likely, the son of Snowy and his mate.  Snowy's mate had eight ducklings this year, was last seen with four and of that four at least one was known to have been caught by a predator.  I am not sure if any of the other ducks in this group are related to him.

Here he is in the afternoon.  That duck in the background is, I think, one of Brown Mama's ducklings.  I think he may have two sisters, or Fish Food Mama's two young daughters like hanging out with him.

And, a shot of the dad of the three black ducklings.  I am worried that he won't be around next spring to make more of them because he's getting old.  They were my favorite, I just loved seeing them and want to see more of that color.

And, the crested and buff duck:

And, Donald, the oldest Pekin at the lake.

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.