Duckling update and RIP Bigboi

Sorry I haven't been updating much.  There's been ups and downs with the ducklings.  

This duckling is the last of the ones I saw last Sunday:

Here are two from that four near the pipe.  I scared them off the shore.  I thought the mom was with them, but when I saw there were four ducklings when I knew there were only three the last time I saw the family a few days ago, I began to get suspicious.  The mama duck was chasing one of them as well.

The mom's two ducklings were near here when the other two came around the concrete pipe.  Everything seemed OK and all four ducklings enjoyed each other's company.  Then, the mother duck viciously attacked this duckling, grabbing it by the head, dunking it, and slamming it against the pipe.  I managed to get her to stop and she went away, leaving two of the ducklings by themselves with no mother.

The one that was attacked stopped peeping and seemed tired and wasn't feeding as well as the other one.

A hungry gull came up and watched them, but that gull had an overgrown bill and probably couldn't have gotten them if he wanted to.

About a half our or more, later, mama came back and they swam with her.  The one duckling seemed a little "off" and not feeling well, though.

Here's another mama with one duckling.  I think she was the one who had the second set of four, not the mama I saw earlier with two.

These ducklings were brand new and were trying to hitch a ride on mama's back whenever she stopped swimming.  Mama took them to safety.

Troublemaker is still around and is starting to grow and fill out.  But, he's much, much smaller than his siblings and is even small for his age.  I'm still not sure he's going to make it, but things are looking better for him.

Here's Pepper, he's so pretty!  However, he gives me an extremely hard time whenever I want to photograph him.  I tried to get his "good side", but he wouldn't let me and kept turning his broken wing to me.  So, here he is.

Sad news about Pepper's dad, though.  Bigboi went missing after I saw him last Sunday.  Puff, the crested runner, was depressed and hung around where Bigboi's body was said to be found.  I didn't see the body, though.

Today, Puff was back with the other two males.  He's now the oldest domestic mallard at the lake.

The geese, though, are still doing wonderfully.  I haven't taken any new pictures since the last time I posted.