So, I found a mama mallard with eight babies:
Sadly, though, this one appears to be badly injured in the head. I think he might be bleeding out of both ears. However, he is acting mostly normal. He even runs the fastest of all the ducklings in this group. I'm thinking he either got snagged by a gull or another duck.
Here he is with his other siblings, doing what ducklings normally do.
More ducklings:
Another mama nearby had two babies.
She was surrounded by 5 drakes, 3 of whom I chased off. However, she did not appreciate me for doing that and it appears that I added to her stress.
So, I backed off to give her some room and she moved her babies to the water:
Sadly, there is only one tiny gosling left and I think this one might be a female. She has actually grown a lot in the last few days. It looks like she's all legs.
Mama goose was throwing her head up because she was both nervous about me and about the other family of five swimming nearby. I backed away because she's a nervous one.
The other goslings are shedding their baby down:
They all came onshore to go across the road to feed on the soft grasses. Here is the mom of the tiny one following behind the other family. She wasn't being too nervous here, but instead, communicating to the other family about where they were going and how much space they need between them and the other family.
I think four of their last year's babies flew off with the large group of visiting geese a couple of weeks ago.
In other news, I found this coot family with three chicks. The parents were very busy.
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