A new wave of ducklings

There seems to be a wave of ducklings going on right now at Lake Murray.  I think the cooler, less dry weather has helped with nesting.  Better late than never.  It will be interesting to see if we have more late hatching ducklings this year.

I found this mother with 8 hatchlings all scattered around very early in the morning:

Here she is when there was more light out.

These three ducklings were without a mother, but didn't seem worried.  They just continued on feeding.  I could hear mom quacking from far away.

There she is!  She flew back and they all swam up to her:

Little troublemaker and his six siblings are still around.  He's grown a bit and is more than half feathered:

Here's his mom and two of his siblings (a third was under water):

The nervous mama was down to four ducklings, but they sure were cute.  She was nervous of me at first:

One duckling really like his mom:

But, decided I was OK enough to come up to me:

Here she is with three of them, one was hiding behind her:

Here is the one:

Some good news!  Big Sissy was seen very early this morning feeding with Little Sissy and Runner Duck:

Then, as soon as it was light, she went back into hiding: