Death by fishing line

Today, there was an unfortunate discovery: one of the young friendly females was discovered strangled by a fishing line and being towed by another duck, probably her sister until she was cut free. She was about 5 months old and was one of the friendliest ducks you'd ever meet. She was practically covered by fishing line from head to toe. She was one of the original 11 ducklings hatched last April and raised by "Duckling-napper" the female that steals ducklings from other females.

From her bill, she looked, at first, to be the Bossy duckling, but it was mostly because her bill was pale from death. Bossy duckling was just spotted (along with her extra friendly sisters and brother) together far away from the scene. This is a photo of the duck before she was killed:



Graphic Pics:

The following contains two graphic pics of the duck with the fishing line around her:




I hope that never happens again. Too bad it was a really good natured female. We need more of those around Lake Murray.


Better news:

Bossy duck is fine and getting better. One of the dead duck's sisters has a crush on him, but he constantly pecks at her. I don't think she's going to give up on him.

Bossy likes to hang around the large drakes

I found three of the youngest ducklings together:


I took this photo of Cinnamon because she's so cute:



And, the black Swedish and Pekin are still plugging along and have even grown bigger:



No sign of Pepper or Curly today. It's been hot.