Rainbows and Rubber Band

Double Rainbow

I got to the lake early in the morning and saw a great rainbow that went from one end of the lake to the other, but I could only get a photo of one end.

Some people in other parts of San Diego got photos of the entire rainbow from end to end.  I also saw some rain to the north of the lake later on.  But, no rain at my house or at the lake, either.

Pat was the first duck I saw this morning, before it was light.  She was scared because she couldn't see me, but later walked up to me when it got lighter out.  Today, she has decided to be a girl duck, some days, she thinks she's a boy.

I found this little duckling hanging out with some other wild mallard ducklings the same age in this one area.  They all seemed to act like brothers, so if they were dumped, they were all dumped together.  However, this one duckling has a rubber band under his tongue on the bottom of the bill.  From the marks on his bill, I suspect that the band had been around his entire bill at one time.  If humans dumped or released him, I don't understand why they wouldn't remove the band from his bill as it poses a choking hazard.  The duckling seemed mostly unbothered by it, except I did see him gulping a lot and acting like he was trying to swallow something at one time.  The band seems to be a bit loose, so hopefully he will lose it or it will break apart, soon.

I'm going to name him Rubber Band, or Bandit when (or if) he gets older.  Here he is with two other ducklings who appear to all be about 7 weeks old, about the age that Project Wildlife releases their ducklings.

There was a female duck with them that was watching over and protecting them as well as talking to them.  Sometimes wildlife rescue agencies give ducklings to motherly ducks to raise and release them all together.

All the ducklings are boys.

Here they are in the daylight and now I can see that the dark duckling is a hybrid mallard-Swedish duckling who will probably look like Pepper when he grows up, perhaps darker like Not-Pepper.  The mama doesn't look familiar, though I have seen females like her at the lake before.  She might be native to the lake, but I find it strange that they would suddenly show up at this age if they were native.  

However, she does look a LOT like Zippy, which means the ducklings *could* be both Oreo's and Neo's ducklings if they are native to the lake.

I think I also saw Bob1, the spotted sandpiper,  in the morning and tried to get a silhouette photo of her in the sunrise, but she would have none of it.  She flew away and called to a second spotted sandpiper whom I think is her mate or her offspring (more likely her mate as females don't really participate in mate rearing, especially after they have learned to fly).

The new Pekin was discovered over by the duck bench last Friday, but I haven't seen him anywhere, since.  Hopefully, his owner came and picked him up or something.  There's no sign of a predator attack and there is no reason why he would have been caught any more than any other of the Pekins there.

And, finally here's a photo of Snowie and her fresh molt, looking more beautiful than ever.  I don't see her or her mate that much anymore for some reason.