RIP Peaches and 2 Pekin Ducks

Peaches

Last week, just after Mother's Day on a Tuesday night, Peaches was run over and killed in the main parking lot at Lake Murray. Apparently, she had been harassed all day by the male ducks and may have been run over trying to get away. That, combined with people feeding her from their cars, probably contributed to her death. It  happened near the end of closing on the 12th. Peaches was about five years old and often nested near the boat dock.

Here's a photo of her in the parking lot last March with her two body guards.

I also have a Youtube video of her coming up to my car on that day:


In addition, 2 healthy Pekin drakes were killed. One was killed by coyotes. He was one of the three that used to hang out on the east end of the parking lot. For several days, ducks that also hung out in that area hung around where his body was seen. I don't even think that these ducks really knew the dead duck. The two that were with him moved away from the area:

The second Pekin used to hang out across the lake. He's one of the ones who was at war with Mr. Squeaky and was beating him up very badly. Mr. Squeaky looked near death when I first saw him after I noticed the other duck had disappeared, but has improved over the last few days. He enjoys hanging out with the girl with the banana bill and the angel wing. I saw him today and he looked so much better and seems to be very happy.

Mr. Squeaky and friends

Mr. Squeaky

The other duck's friend is extremely depressed, though Arthritis duck, who is also one of Mr. Squeaky's friend, comes over and sits near him now and then.

Sissy is having a problem. Even though Runner Duck and her other friend do a really good job protecting her, she is being harassed by the same two males that harassed Peaches all the time. Today, she seems to want to hide from them.

Here are the males attacking her. She doesn't seem to be protesting too much, though. I think she likes those male ducks, but is too overwhelmed by them.

Gosling news!

Almost forgot to add the obligatory photo!  I only have this one right now. You can hardly see her. She and the other five nearly grown ones are doing great and getting more grass. The big ones are practicing flying now.

However, Squeaker's husband is being a pain. He's biting people in the buttocks and laying down and sleeping in the road.  He might not be around long.

More changes for ducklings

I decided to visit the lake again, last night and found that Peaches had already lost 3 ducklings. However, the other mother, somehow, had gained 3 ducklings. Since the two ducks are closely related and their ducklings in that critical first 3 day phase, it appears that those 3 ducklings have decided to go with Peaches's mother while Peaches keeps 5 of them.

There was also a duckling hatching from the other mother's nest when I left last night, but this morning, I found he had died. He was being hatched backward and his head was in the wrong position. Peaches also had a dead duckling in her nest that appeared to have died soon after hatching.

This morning, I came up to find the heron standing over Peaches's mother with his head down near where all the ducklings were hiding under her. He flew off when I arrived and I found out that she was already missing one duckling. The mother did very well staying absolutely still, but I think one of the ducklings that was on the outside of the others might have gotten snatched.

Here are the "other ducklings" (with 3 of Peaches's ducklings, I think, still around):

And, here's Peaches's ducklings beginning with the Squinty Eye duckling:

Yesterday, a mallard-y duckling tried to steal food out of the black duckling's mouth. Today, the black duckling was doing the same thing to the mallard-y duckling while Squinty Eye looks on, again:

This little one is the smallest and sweetest:

I think Uno is gone for good.  Aww.

Peaches's Ducklings and Uno

I made a surprise visit to the lake and discovered that Peaches had a brood of about ten ducklings.

She also still had almost as many eggs still on the nest.

She had mostly mallard, but one black and yellow duckling, too.

This drake is, most likely, the father of most of them:

Back on her nest for nap time.

Sadly, as of last Tuesday, Snowie only had one duckling left. I didn't think he would survive much longer. However, today, he's still there and getting bigger. He's now over two weeks old and almost too big for the gulls and already too big for crows. Still small enough for herons. I've named him Uno, but really want to hold off on really naming him until I make sure he's makes it a couple more weeks.

He's always losing sight of mom:

Wandering away, once again:

Sad update on the family of six goslings. It appears that one went missing just like last year. I don't know if someone took him or something got to him.

And, Miss Squeaky was rescued today. She was sick and injured from the males. Here's a photo I took of her last Tuesday. She looked much worse today.

Something is wrong with eyes. They keep foaming up and the membrane seems to be sticky.

Update on Trouble and Peaches

I didn't realize I went so long without updating everyone on the ducks at the lake.

First, I wanted to update everyone on Boat Dock Peaches and her ducklings.  A few days after my last post, Peaches only had one duckling.

I wasn't able to visit the lake until much later and she had no ducklings left at all.

Trouble gave me a good close-up.  He is so curious about everyone and all the other ducks:

He was beginning to get a little errant feather right where the back of his head and neck meet.

I saw him a little bit later and he had grown.  But, he was so far away I couldn't see any details.  A week or so later, I looked for him at least twice and didn't see anything that looked like the duck in the photos above.  The closest I've seen is the duck pictured below.  He's only slightly larger than Trouble and has the errant feather and correct head and body shape.  But, appears to be a much older duck.  I have a feeling that this might not be Trouble and Trouble may have passed on.  But, I know of no other ducks that are the same size and shape that Trouble was.

Ducky Ducky looks a lot better and has even gained a little weight.

The two wood ducks, old and new, are still there.  The younger one is getting his drake colors again while the older one looks like he's not going to be full colored anymore, but still looks healthy.

Wednesday, I found this recently released rehabbed mallard acting weird.  I thought she was sick.  But, she was actually hooked together by a nasty 8-pronged fishing hook and lure.  I'm so glad I asked for help with her because I thought she was sick and dying.  She was unhooked and all the hooks were removed and she was re-released.

RIP Big Bumblefoot:

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine rescued Big Bumblefoot to help him with his foot infections.  When she couldn't find the source of the infections, it was agreed that she would keep him comfortable.  I told her that I didn't think he would live a lot longer.  I actually expected him to live anywhere from 3 months to about a year.  Unfortunately, he died about 8 or 9 days later.  But, during that time, he was spoiled and loved upon.  He died in his sleep in comfort.  His new owner was disappointed that he couldn't enjoy his retirement longer.

This picture was taken only a couple of days before he was rescued.  He had an awesome temperament and loved being with people.

Boat Dock Peaches has new ducklings!

Boat Dock Peaches finally hatched her ducklings a couple days ago.  Here's a photo of four of the five of them.  I guess she had six to begin with:

One of the goslings is limping and lagging behind.  Mom waited for him.  Here he is greeting his siblings after making it back to the group.  

An ibis came to visit today.  That duck in the background doesn't know what to think about it:

Just a shot of the pigeons flying around.  There's a new sprinkler system that goes off whenever a bird tries to roost on the docks.  As a result, the pigeons seem confused as to where to hang out:

RIP Peaches' ducklings

I first came to the lake early in the morning and saw the Peaches only had two ducklings.  I came back a few hours later and couldn't find her, at first, but found her with her two ducklings, swimming around.  I was there for an hour and decided to meditate so that I can both enjoy watching them and help protect them.

I saw a gull fly by and notice them, but he went away, probably because, at that time, they were only a few feet away from me.  They slept, played, and groomed each other as I sat there.  Then, all of a sudden, the gull came back and I saw him looking for the ducklings.  Before I could do anything, he swooped down and grabbed one.  He took it away and ate it before I could get to him.

Shortly before the attack

After that happened, the other gulls came and surrounded her last duckling.  I shooed the gulls away, but I decided that I couldn't watch them as they took her last baby, so I left.  I don't expect to see it the next time I visit.

The last duckling

The gull that snatched the baby looked like this one.  We found a dead adult gull nearby.  I hope it choked on a duckling.

 I know that gulls get ducklings, I just didn't need to see it happen.  Sometimes they drop them, too, but this one didn't.

At least they went before I could get too attached to them.

Almost all the ducklings were hatched and spent their early days in this and one other nearby area.  Both areas are saturated with gulls and very few ducklings survived, especially those that weren't moved from the area as soon as possible.  Fish Food Mama was the only successful mother.  I have no idea why she was able to get hers to adulthood and none of the other mothers couldn't.  I also don't know why there were no ducklings in one of the other areas of the lake.

We say goodbye to a couple ducks

Today, we say goodbye to Curly, the curly billed duck.  Though I haven't seen him dead, it is very unusual for him to be missing so long.  I think the last time I saw him was in December or January.  Someone else said they saw him in February and someone else in March.  But, for me, it's very unusual for me not to see him in more than a month.  So, I presume he has passed on from old age.  He was a very healthy and vibrant duck until the end.

Curly's last photo taken on December 22nd, 2011

The other duck was a female mallard that I found the vultures eating.  The bill and head markings as well as the darker coloring of her feathers indicate that she might be Caramel or her mother.  Caramel was seen doing well a few days ago and the body was found in an area where she hasn't frequented in almost a year.  So, I won't be able to make a good determination of who it is until all the hens return from their nests.  

Here is a photo of Caramel's sister, who was in a bad mood today.  Notice her fanned tail.

This next photo was taken after he opened her mouth in threat, opened it and closed it a few times and let out a big loud quack before looking at me in a cute way.  I think a male walked too close to her.  She then went off to see if someone else would feed her.

I believe this next picture is of Spoonface's sister, the real bossy duck.  She was being really friendly today.

I think this is the formerly rescued Peep, her mate.

This is one of the trio where the female duck died a couple weeks ago:

Here is the other survivor:

When I went this morning to look at the killdeers in the ballfield, Shy and her mate were going absolutely nuts.  I looked everywhere for a nest and didn't find one.  I got distracted by some scary looking large dogs, one of them a large rottweiler trying to climb a fence, in a yard bordering the park, so I didn't take any photos of them.  The dogs were set off by all their screaming.  I forgot that I had to talk to the killdeer to make them feel more comfortable, but I was so distracted, plus I was listening for the one chick I think they're caring for whom I think is nearby.  If you want to make friends with killdeer (or at least calm them a little), you have to talk to them.  

Here is a photo of Shy I took a couple days earlier:

And her mate, AKA "Tiny's Twin" because he looks a lot like Tiny, George's son.

Across the lake, many other killdeer were out flying around doing territorial call.  Little Killer Jr. was being escorted around by Junior who didn't like sharing his territory with him.  

Here is the much bigger Junior: