First, I came across a couple of Caspian terns on the shore. The water was lowered to do more construction work on the pipe that they put in over the last year:
Killer and Digger were also there. Here's a photo of Digger:
Junior seemed to have found another mate. Couldn't get a good picture of her, but here's Junior:
I found 9 little ducklings all alone! They were in the heron's hunting area and the one whom I thought was the mother was paying no attention to them:
They just went about their lives without a care in the world or of all the things that want to eat them:
Later, I found out the mother was being harassed by five drakes. When things calmed down, she collected her ducklings plus two more:
They all look like rouen-mallard hybrids. Their mom looks like Cinammon, but can fly and is at least a year older:
A little ways down the road, I found this lesser goldfinch in plain sight:
Across the lake, I went to check on the M6 mom and dad's nest at the ballfield. It was completely gone! I couldn't tell what happened to it. Both the M6 parents, Shy and her mate were gone, too. So, I went to look for them at the water's edge. When I went down to one of the areas where the geese were, I found the Shy's mom and dad and four little chicks! Their eggs had hatched successfully!
Here's a photo of three of them with mom:
Do you see them? Perhaps this will help:
I was only able to photograph 3 of them as the fourth went right into the brush. All three are boys, I think the 4th might be a girl, but am not sure. I have decided that I am not going to chase killdeer chicks around to photograph them this year. If I can get an extender for my lens, I will try to photograph them, then. So, these may be the only photos I get of them until they learn how to fly.
Also seen today was an eared grebe (transitioning into summer breading colors) hanging around the ducklings:
And, Oreo was around with her posse:
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