Snowie returns with more babies!

I was surprised to see Snowie show up with seven new babies.  I was worried she was the one that someone stole a few weeks ago (or that I heard a report that someone stole).  I was hoping she was on the nest.  A few months ago, she lost her first brood and this is her second brood who all look extremely tired.  I don't think she ever rested them.

I found this mama with two ducklings that I think used to live near the front entrance.  One duckling is a lot bigger than the other.  At this age, I have noticed that boy ducklings have a growth spurt, but the girls eventually catch up.  The smaller duckling also seems weaker.

Later, when I came back, I saw several kids from a school near where the mama was throwing rocks at them.  Mama screamed and moved the ducklings away and I think a rock hit one of them.  Then, they disappeared.  I did see them reach another shore and one duckling was running around, but I looked everywhere and couldn't find them.  I know the kids didn't follow after them as I heard them ask each other where they went.

I went over to admonish the kids (and whomever was there that was in charge of them), but they all disappeared extremely fast (It only took three minutes to walk over and, suddenly, that area was empty though they were over there for at least half an hour before).  I saw two people wearing similar shirts as the school standing nearby, but they lied and claimed that there were never kids there and had no idea what I was talking about.

I thought I saw a duckling running in some brush, but when I looked, I couldn't find anything.  I hope those ducklings are OK and weren't seriously hurt.  I think mom may have stashed them in the brush and went away to distract the kids.

I saw this mama duck and her three new ducklings:

Something happened to one of the baby coots as there's only three.  There were four of them on Sunday.

This gull was watching the coots and ducklings, but didn't seem very interested in eating them.

This is Butterscotch and her three surviving ducklings now almost three months old.  One of them is a boy and two are girls:

Oreo went over to the "duck bench" near the 2 mile mark.  I hope he leaves Bumblefoot alone.  Bumblefoot is actually looking a bit better now that breeding season is winding down.  Oreo looks extremely thin:

The little call/duclair duck is still going strong:

I think this western grebe is sick as he's hanging around on the shore.  It's extremely unusual as these grebes can't walk very well on land, if at all.  But, he's alert and was swimming around, so he may be OK and probably has a stomach ache or something.

Tragedy at the raven's nest:

(Graphic Pic)

I went to check on the raven's nest I'm monitoring.  I've been monitoring this nest for two years now and have seen babies fledge from there.  But, this morning, I found a dead raven hanging from the nest.  At first, I thought it was the mom, but now that I look at the picture, I know it was one of the two babies in the nest.  It looks like fishing line might be involved, but I'm not sure.  He still has down on his wings, so I'm thinking this happened in the last week and he may not have died from the hanging.  It's too bad that no one could help him.

At first, I thought it was the mom hanging and all babies were dead, but when I went back a few hours later, I found dad and one of the babies sitting on a nearby roof.  Looks like Dad brought breakfast:

Here is mom and dad raven.  They were both kinda upset that I was there and were flying around from tree to tree.  I think they were protecting their dead baby.  I thought I heard a noise from the nest, but I didn't see any living babies up there at all and the one hanging is definitely dead.  They didn't attempt to go into the nest.