Hot day with ospreys, grebes and ducks

Baby Blue!

Baby blue is going strong.  He's such a smart ducky.  He seems to like this one mallard and tends to stay around where he is and goes where he goes.  But, the mallard doesn't seem to like him, much, probably because he peeps like a duckling, still.

I also took a photo of Oreo.  He was hanging out with three of Cinnamon's boyfriends, including her favorite male.

Here's another photo of the Indian Runner who has gotten HUGE.  He's as big as Bigboi now:

Bigboi and his friends were nearby:

All domestic ducks were well and accounted for, including the Pekin who was found way across the lake from where I saw him earlier this week.  He was hiding in the reeds on the lake side.  Since I don't walk over to that area much and he was in a bad spot, I couldn't get a photo of him.

Near Baby Blue, I found these two ospreys.  I think one is a juvenile, but I'm not sure because he could be a male.  I think I heard begging sounds from him, so he's probably a baby.  I don't think they're our resident osprey as both babies are gone, one dead and one with an injured wing and in a rescue facility.

Lots of western and Clark's grebes, too.

Cinnamon's missing

I visited the lake to check up on Bitey and Neo this afternoon and noticed all of Cinnamon's boyfriends by the boat dock--but no Cinnamon.

Later, I came back and found all her boyfriends where I usually see her this time of day, but, still, no Cinnamon.  I looked up and down everywhere and found not even a feather of her.  There is a lot of brush there, though, so she could have been stashed anywhere around there.  Or, she could be sitting on a nest.  I did hear a nearby hissing when I passed by a certain bush near where I usually see her.  But, that could have been a human or even another duck on a nest.  I looked through the bushes and still found no sign of her.

I've never seen this happen before.

I did finally find Oreo among all the other boyfriends.  They, then, all swam together around and around.  Usually, when they're with Cinnamon, they root around along the shore.  But, not tonight.  They just swam around.

Bitey is doing fine, by the way.  And, I thought I saw Neo pull his wing into a normal position for a second.  He's hanging out with Indy who bullies around Bitey.  Later, Indy, his brother, and Neo all went to this one area, but some people fishing threw rocks at him.  Indy and his brother flew off, but Neo was having a hard time getting away and I think he might have gotten hit.  :(

The last little duckling and some stolen ducklings

There is only one duckling left of the original 11 that is still with the mama. My favorite, yellowish one and the one that was sick the last time I saw it, have passed on. Both of them seemed tired and sluggish when I last saw them. I think the mom wasn't getting them out of the water enough and they either drowned or weren't strong enough to get away from predators. This one was resting all morning. I hope he makes it.

Keeping warm under mom

But, on the positive side, I found five of the six stolen ducklings all kidnapped by Ducky's mom. They seem a little on the small side, but I'm sure these are them as they have some of the same markings of the ones that disappeared. I didn't get any real good pictures today to confirm it 100%, but I'm pretty positive that these are the tired duckling's siblings:



And, here's four of the ten that the Canada gander tried to kill last Saturday. They're doing well, though a seagull tried to get them and they were hanging out right under the herons' nest. There is also one extremely disobedient duckling in this group that might not make it if it doesn't straighten up:



Killdeers

All four of the Beautiful Dad's male chicks are doing great and are very adventurous. I was able to walk up on them because they wandered out of mom and dad's sight. At first, I didn't even think their parents were around, which isn't unusual for chicks this age. But, the parents finally saw me and got upset. Then, the chicks went and hid. Unlike the last time, the parents weren't as calm as they were that day and I couldn't take my time taking photos.



Mom gives me a dirty look:



Some of the little chickies:





The Cooper's hawk was hunting right above them and grackles were chasing each other around only a few feet from the chicks. It's amazing that they're still around.


Oreo

Oreo is still missing. Her posse is waiting for her in this one area where she was hanging out for the last couple of weeks. At one time, it appeared that her friends were "chatting" with someone through the reeds. Even Bigboi is hanging out more in this area. Hopefully, she is in there somewhere on a nest. I remember seeing some black and white feathers around, but I can't tell if it's hers.

No killdeer, so my favorite ducks

The lake level keeps getting higher, so I see no signs of the killdeer at all, except for one that I think I saw flying around on the western side of the lake.

So, here are some photos of my favorite ducks:

I know there's exposure problems with this photo, but I thought it was a nice interaction between Oreo and Big Boy. Big Boy is missing half of one of his feet, but I never noticed until now. He's been hiding it by not getting out of the water unless he feels safe.



Here's a photo of a cute female wood duck scratching herself on the head:



The crested duck has taken an interest in Oreo and flirted with her while Latte (BigDaddy2), her childhood friend, was somewhere else:



And, here is Tom rooting around in the mud showing his green shine:



And, a gadwall swimming in the shade with the domestic ducks:


In other news, "Jumpy" one of the juvenile seagulls that liked to jump on the coots has died. He was very sick when I last saw him several weeks ago and it looked like his leg was hurt bad. His leg was swollen at his death, but not broken. I don't even think he was 6 months old, yet.

Also, there's a pair of feral geese that are going to make it hard for me to visit the M4 killdeer territory, I think. They don't like anyone who they think are fishermen/women and attack or act aggressively towards people they aren't sure of. Most of the time, they are no problem for me, but sometimes they are and I don't want to get hurt. They are also aggressive towards all the other ducks/birds, too. I don't think they're a pair, but we shall see if one lays eggs. That would explain a lot.