Baby Season 2017

Duckling season seems to be peaking now. What's been nice is that a lot of the ducklings are surviving a lot longer than they used to. The blue herons have all fledged from their nests and I haven't seen the black-crowned herons all season. The gulls are behaving themselves so far, but I think they may be afraid of being injured by the mama ducks. One of the gulls was so injured, possibly by a mama duck, that it could no longer fly.

I compiled a lot of the photos and videos of the ducklings for this month since the time I last posted.

We have a new set of four goslings at Lake Murray. I think we are not really going to get anymore goslings as it's becoming late in the season.

Miss Butterscotch's ducklings are all grown up and almost ready to fly. Butterscotch is getting her groove back with her male duck friends. Her ducklings are the older ones in the video.

Here are a couple more duckling photos I just took today:

The Two

The single duckling below is being watched closely by the duckling-eating gull. But the mama duck is very experienced and successful, so I don't think she would let him get eaten without a fight.

The Single Duckling

Dumped Ducks:

It's that time of year again where people dump their Easter ducklings to get eaten by coyotes at the lake.  These three nearly died of dehydration until someone threw them into the lake. They're still having a hard time getting adjusted to living at the lake, but at least they're not thirsty anymore. I have a feeling they were kept in a cage or in a home and have no clue what to do.

These two were dropped off yesterday and seem to have a handle on things. Runner Duck wants to rape the female, though, but he hasn't figured out how to get past the big male Pekin.

RIP:

The coyotes have been very active and we've lost several ducks in the last few weeks:

The droopy-winged brown and white female had been missing for a week and a half before I found her body, so she may have been already dead when the coyotes found her. The gray one was doing well and getting grayer, but I didn't see her as well today. But, she may be OK.

The female Chinese swan goose, dropped off almost two years ago, was killed shortly after the droopy-winged duck. Her mate is now spending time trying to stay close to some of the older geese.  I think he's pretty scared. Her egg was still in her nest when I saw the feather pile.

More and More Ducklings at Lake Murray

Right now, there are so many ducklings being hatched that they are pretty much everywhere.

The seven from last week were down to three yesterday. These had made it to ten days old, which is rare in this spot. I doubt I will see them again after these photos because of too many predators. However, it's nice to get some photos of them at this age as it's been a long time since I've been able to do so. They were eating bread from the ground in some of the photos. I didn't feed them that, though, so don't tell me how bad bread is for them as I already know.

Lovely Miss Una was seen with ducklings about the same time. I saw her twice and she had four ducklings when I last saw her. Then, she disappeared. This was her pattern last year when she kept the ducklings in one place until their numbers started going down and then took them somewhere else where they can stay hidden, so they may still be around.

I saw this gull near the ducklings. It looks like he had the stuffing beat out of him. His wing might be broken. I don't know if Miss Una or one of the geese beat him up. I watched him for a few days and he's not doing good. I don't think he's going to make it. I can't catch him because he swims away. I hate seeing gulls get this old only to die shortly afterwards. It's very hard for a gull to reach breeding age.

I think Miss Una's Mother had these ducklings, yesterday. There were tons of gulls around, so I don't know how they fared. Miss Una's Mother is a very competent mother, so I hope all is good.

Lots of babies in the canals. I'm not sure who this mama duck is:

This female, also in the canal, looks a lot like "Mama's Little Weakling" from a few years ago. She was raised in the canal, so it makes sense that her ducklings are being raised there as well.

And, of course, Mr. and Mrs. Squeaker and their one adorable baby:

Still no signs of any other goslings, yet. I suspect there's at least three other nests going on.

Grumpy (or Larry) update:

I can't remember if I've mentioned it in my other posts, but the parking lot goose which I called Grumpy (also known as "Larry" by one other person) was taken to Project Wildlife to be rehabilitated and, perhaps, released somewhere where she won't get into trouble. She was the one who liked to stare at her reflection in the cars in the parking lot. She was causing a lot of problem as she had started to go out to street and local businesses, so she could have caused an accident or got hurt.

Photo Contest Winners

I enter the Mission Trails photo contest almost every year and almost always with a duckling or gosling photo. I just like to show off the babies because I really enjoy photographing them. This year, I entered three photos and two of them won prizes. It was a total surprise for me and I thank the judges for choosing my photos out of all the great photos that were there.  Here were the winning photos:

Third Place and People's Choice:

Good Morning Baby Squeaker

First Place and Best of Show:

March of the Goslings

Thanks for viewing!

Disappearing and Re-appearing Ducklings

Duck breeding season is both a happy and a sad time for me. Happy because I love seeing all the adorable babies. Sad because many females are killed by male ducks and many ducklings are eaten. Already, I have witnessed gulls grabbing ducklings and eating at least one. They may also be responsible for the disappearance of this one, the last of about ten that hatched about 9 days ago.

The mom didn't seem to care.

Last year's "uneaten duckling," Miss Una, was seen with ten of her own ducklings. She's such a wonderful mama, very conscientious and loving.

Now, here's the weird part. Last Friday, Miss Una had six ducklings, including a lame one that got bit hard by a male and had trouble with his leg. On Saturday, Miss Una had only five ducklings, and I suspected that the lame one probably died from his injuries. However, when I walked around the curve, I found another female, possibly Miss Una's mother, with three ducklings the same age, including one with a hurt foot. She went one way and Miss Una happy went another way.

Today, that other mother was seen with at least 12 ducklings, including the one with the hurt foot. Some looked younger than others.

 One duckling didn't want to go with this other female. When I approached, he ran after the group, but went off on his own and stayed by himself for quite a long time, peeping now and then.

 Later, I saw Miss Una with the one duckling who seemed very happy just to stay with her.

The other female, with at least 11 or 12 ducklings, disappeared at first, but was later seen in the area. She seemed to want to keep her distance from Miss Una and her one duckling. The problem is that this mother takes a lot more risks with her babies than Miss Una and I fear that they may not make it.

For some weird reason, the gulls do not want to fly over this area. There's a kingbird actively attacking many birds, but I don't think they attack gulls. It could just be a fluke and they may decide they want to go over and grab some ducklings eventually.

The gosling season has started and, already, there are two broods. Two more broods will be arriving soon. 

RIP Mr. Pekin and Arthritis Duck:

After looking for them for over a week, I finally found out what happened to Mr. Pekin and the duck with arthritis. They both disappeared at the same time and I was sure that at least one of them was still around because it's rare that two would die suddenly. I found both of their remains today and it looks like they coyotes got both of them the same time. They had been following Miss Angel to this area which is a little further away than they usually go. Miss Angel is OK, however.  Those two were best friends until the last minute. They both join Mr. Squeaky who was killed by coyotes a few months ago.

Babies From This Morning

I was surprised to see a couple of three week old ducklings all by themselves at Lake Murray, San Diego. I think they are the two ducklings I saw back on May 12th. The mom has been hiding them in the reeds, but somehow, they wandered off on their own. They're much too young to be by themselves. One of them is a boy and one is a girl. Already, Runner Duck attacked one of them, chasing him around. Runner duck tolerated the girl duckling, but not the boy duckling. Poor babies didn't know they weren't wanted near him. Pumpkin seemed a bit interested and "talked" to them a little. I think I heard their real mama call to them at least once.

They were following around the scalped mother duck who had seven ducklings last Monday and now has only three left. I'm betting that she was bedding down at night near where the two older ducklings were hiding. Probably, in the morning, when she did her mama talk telling her ducklings to move on, they began to follow them. However, she really didn't want them around and chased them whenever they got too close  to her babies.

The small ducklings, however, were fearless and not afraid of the bigger ducklings. Here are two of them taking a bath.

Here is the youngest gosling who is starting to get her adult feathers. The other five are fully feathered and getting ready to fly.

And, there are a whole lot of dove squabs at the lake, too. Here are two of them who weren't sure if they had to move or should pretend I couldn't see them.

Down to 2 tiny baby geese and RIP Orea the duck

Unfortunately, the new goose family is down to two goslings and they haven't grown much since last week. All four of them were seen yesterday, doing fine. This morning, there were only two.

I think these parents are the inexperienced ones. Dad is extremely nervous and seemed to be even more nervous today. I'm wondering if someone stole the other two babies yesterday. I was thinking the egret might have gotten them because he's been eating everything in sight. But, he seemed to be going out of his way to avoid the geese, so I'm thinking he's already been thrashed enough by the parents to know better than to try to get their babies.

These two chicks were extremely hungry and nibbling on everything. I think this thing is some kind of cover or tarp used in maintaining the reservoir. It's been there for years and I don't think it's harmful. I'm thinking they're trying to eat the algae growing on it.  The grass has been extremely dry and I think there's not enough nutrition for the little guys. Mom and dad don't seem to know where to take them to find more food and I think they are hoping the humans will feed them.

The other baby geese are about a month old now and getting pretty big.

The baby osprey in the osprey nest are also nearly full grown.

And, finally, Oreo (AKA Tux) the duck went missing two weeks ago, just after his four year dump anniversary. Last time I saw him, he was pretty thin, but seemed to be glad to see me. Usually, he seems annoyed at me and doesn't want his picture taken. Then, he disappeared. I found a pile of his feathers across the lake from where I last saw him in the same spot his best friend, Aflac was killed a few years ago. It looks like he was turned into coyote food.