More ducklings and killdeer chick photos

Sorry about it if you are getting sick of seeing killdeer and ducklings photos.

Junior doing a broken wing act

The first thing I came across was Junior doing a full-blown broken wing act.  He made very little sound and just started flapping around.  His mate did a mini version of the broken wing act.

Junior's mate

 Then, they did an "ungulate response", which is where they fan out their tail and wings to warn cattle and other large animals that they're about to step on their eggs or young.  I stayed on the trail and looked all around, but saw no eggs or chicks anywhere.  There were also several gulls there eating a dead fish and I think they were keeping an eye on them as well.

Across the lake, I saw the two little female chicks boldly out running around.  The other, smaller, chick was further away, hiding, but had very loud lungs!   I am already noticing differences between the two females.  This one has a little mark on her forehead:

Un-named chick

This one has a smudge on her neck/cheek.  I am going to name her smudge.  I don't think she has any forehead markings:

Smudge

Smudge

Un-named chick

Dad, Pollux was torn between his two daughters and the other chick further away.  He came and gave his two daughters a big hug to keep them warm, but I didn't get a picture of them under their Dad's wings.  Here is a photo of Pollux when he first arrived:

Neo is now totally on his own.  His mother has pretty much completely abandoned him, though she does stay in the general area.  Neo is very mature for his age and is almost as feathered as some ducklings that are two weeks older than him.  But, he's still pretty small.  Whenever he hears his mom quack (mostly at the males harassing her), he begins to peep really loud for her.

Here are the older ducklings who are only a couple weeks from being full grown.

Fish-food mama still has five ducklings.  "Picked-on", the Canada goose with no tail, is being a total jerk with them, snaking his neck and pecking at them as well as many other smaller birds.   I also don't trust Louie anymore because of that injured Pekin duck that was dropped off and because I heard that he killed a gull around the same time.

Here are the five ducklings:

The mom with four ducklings now has only two ducklings:

Good news about the two Pekins that I mentioned yesterday.  I found someone to catch them and take them home.  They will be well loved: