"Stretch" might have a girlfriend

In my last post, I mentioned a lady who had released (or tried to) release two ducks from the local wildlife rescue agency.  One took off and the other was unreleaseable and was taken back to the lady's home.  Well, I think I spotted the one that took off last week near the boat docks quacking her head off.

When I approached her, she took off again. Definitely was not friendly to people.

This male duck seemed interested in her and came to check her out when he heard her quacking.  I also heard at least one female doing a "mama quack" in answer to hers off in the distance.

Later, she showed up on the other side of the lake and immediately went right up to this other young duck about the same age.  At first, I thought maybe it was one of the family with two ducklings that I originally thought were both boys.  I thought maybe I was wrong about that family and one was a girl, afterall. However, the mother duck, seen on the shore in the bottom of the photo, is the mother of Stretch and not the mom of the two I was thinking of.  Stretch is almost exactly the same age as the new female is.  Mother duck and the female duckling were having an extended conversation, for sure.  The conversation sounded almost like a parent lecturing a teenager, but it looks like she was accepted into the family.  The other duckling never took his head out of his feathers, so I couldn't tell if he was male or female and can't confirm that it is Stretch for sure, yet.

The lady who raised her said the duckling was wild from the start and didn't seem to get along or like any of the other ducks.  But, now it looks like she's might have a new family.  We shall see if Stretch will be her new boyfriend.