Ducklings almost grown up

I thought I would post a few photos and not so much writing. The ducklings are growing up. They're reaching the age that they will soon be on their own. Already, I've seen ducklings their age off by themselves.

Peaches' ducklings:

I think this is the "gray" duckling

Pepper, saying "Hi"

One of Caramel's ducklings is already independent and hanging around Quacker, the female Cayuga:



The two older ducklings that were part of the group stolen from their original mom. The two Chinese ganders had been bossing them around, awaking them from their nap:




Three ducklings that I mistook for Ducky's ducklings. The third one was out of range of the camera:



The lone parking lot duckling relaxing. Then, a kid came by and chased all the ducks away and started to chase down the duckling, but his dad stopped him. I hope he was able to relax for the rest of the day with no problems.



And, some new ducklings I saw in Cowles Bay (Lake Murray). I saw three more in other places at the lake.



Cinnamon looks ragged from her boyfriends mating with her, but it looks like her feathers are starting to come back on her neck:



And, a female wood duck without her ducklings who would be just about old enough to start becoming independent, I think. I have a feeling that they were nearby, hiding:



And, now for the killdeer. I think I saw the M6 mom and Squiggy, Castor and Spike, but it's hard to identify them. The one that I thought was Spike could also be Shy's mate. He was off by himself.

Squiggy and mom (front)

Spike or Shy's mate, trying to hide from me

I saw this cool pigeon at the lake, too:



Back at home, I saw this raggedy black phoebe trying to use our pool for a bath. He behaved exactly like the black phoebe I usually see, except he was really fuzzy and had no tail. Perhaps he's a fledgling.