Another two dumped Pekin ducklings

Unbelievable!  Another two Pekin ducklings were dropped off a couple days ago that are too young to be on their own.  They appear to be about four or five weeks old.  One duckling has a metal fishing sinker/weight attached to its bill, probably from trying to feed on algae.  It doesn't seem to be bothering him much, but if it's made of lead, he could die if he swallows it.  I have a feeling it was attached to some algae he swallowed and he can't seem to spit it out.

The other duckling, in front, is very aggressive and mean towards the one in the back.  But, if the two separate, the mean one begins to call for him.  However, as soon as they meet, the mean one begins to rip off downy feathers from his back.  It's not the pecking that you see siblings do, it's like a drake trying to dominate another one.  Fortunately, they're both the same size, but not for long because the mean one doesn't let the weaker one eat anything.  Part of this behavior could be coming out of starvation as I'm sure they're extremely hungry.  The weaker one seems to know how to find plants to eat.

I am not able to rescue these, myself, and I am trying to find someone who can come get them before it's too late.  Unfortunately, for them, I suspect that both are males and males are hard to place.  Since they are partially feathered (though they get soaking wet when they swim), are fairly large already,  and it's warm both in and out of the water, I think they have just about as much chance of surviving as any other dumped duck.  They seem to know about taking to the water when disturbed and have, kinda, attached themselves to another Pekin drake in the area at times.

I will still work on trying to get someone to take them, if possible.

In the meantime, I saw Neo, he's fully feathered now and should be flying.  But, his wings don't look quite right:

This wood duck was really friendly with me and walked right up.  She then followed me as I walked away. It might be the same wood duck from a few days ago:

Something unusual in this location:  Tricolored blackbirds:

I also saw Killer Jr. and Miracle's baby killdeer chick in the ballfield.  Unfortunately, though, they did not leave when the players arrived to play ball.  I suspect they left, later, which is good because people were driving in and around the field and they could have gotten run over by a car if they left at the wrong time.  Plus, two kites were hunting nearby and the little chick could be mistaken for a mouse.

And, Fish Food Mama's duckling family is beginning to separate.  I saw Indy by himself, another male duckling with Sweetie, and the other two in two different places.  When it's time to nap, they all come together and mama looks over them.  I think I also saw Sister ducks, both fully flying.

Mad mamma ducks!

The one little duckling was still hanging on when I saw him today.  But, his mom was being harassed by the males and actually flew off and left him alone with the heron and cormorants!

But, he heard her quacks and they were soon reunited.  She is not a very attentive mother and I fear that, soon, this duckling is no more.  So far, he's made it to about 18-19 days old.  Here he is getting ready to lay down and go to sleep.  I walked away, but when I tried to see him from across the lake, I couldn't.  I could see the mom, but not him.  I didn't see any predators in the area, so I am just hoping that he was hard to see because of his small size and the fact that he wasn't moving around:

I saw another new mama with a yellow duckling!  It's the brown female (I call her brown because her head is really dark brown and has very little markings) and I think that's Big Daddy's baby. That would make him 1/4 saxony, 1/4 pekin and half mallard.  I sure hope he makes it.  His mom was very attentive and watchful of her ducklings.

I disturbed her from her hiding spot:

She was heading right for mama heron who was following a cormorant around.  She was hoping to steal the cormorant's catch or take advantage of the cormorant's ability to herd and ball fish.  Mama heron didn't seem interested in the ducklings right now:

One time, the cormorant popped up near the duck family and began staring at the ducklings.  Brown mama got furious and attacked him with all her might.  I have never seen a cormorant kill a duckling or chick, they seem so focused on catching fish.  Doesn't mean they won't if they had the opportunity arose:

After a short time, she disappeared like a good mama duck should. 

This is a photo of the mom with the five ducklings, but she only has two in this photo.  She still has five.  It's entirely possible that the dead duckling the raven got a couple days ago wasn't from her brood as she came from a different area of the lake.  I have a feeling that the duckling that the raven got was the single duckling I had seen last week.  His mom was seen a couple days ago without a duckling and was trying to steal one of these.  The duckling may have died naturally.  

 Louie and Jill are looking more like a pair every time I see them.  Louie works real hard to convince Jill that he's not aggressive.  Once, he went over to her and stretched out his neck to protect her from people and dogs, but quickly curled it up as soon as he saw her looking at him.  He makes sure his neck is always flexed and curled around her, but follows her around and sits near her wherever she goes:

Pepper's wing is actually doing better.  I saw him stretch it all the way out today.  It looked pretty good.  I think, though, his shoulder might be mis-aligned, but it could just be sore.  It doesn't appear to be broken and he seems to have full movement.

Big Daddy, the Saxony-Pekin hybrid was missing today.  I'm a little worried, but it's not the first time he's disappeared.  He can't fly, but does wander a lot.

Two fuzzy dumped Easter ducklings

Last night, there was a lot of rain.  This morning, I found these two baby Pekins all alone, dumped at the side of the lake.

 Apparently, they had been there since the afternoon before.  They appear to be about 3-4 weeks old, which would put them right in the middle of the Easter season.  Usually, ducklings this age won't survive the night, especially a stormy night.  But, luckily, it was warmer than usual and the predators stayed away.  In the morning, one of the herons was eying the smaller of the two.  Plus, they seemed to be starving.

When I got them home, they were very dirty from the dirt in the carrier I was using.

I gave them a little bath:

They were still dirty, but they seemed to get really tired in the tub, so I took them out and dried them off.

Here is a video I made of them bathing (Yes, I know my tub is disgustingly dirty.  It's not as bad as it looks on video and I cleaned it afterward):






They were later taken to a store called Bird Crazy on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. to be adopted out. Bird Crazy specializes in exotic birds, but they thought they could help these babies. If you are interested in adopting them, look up that store here in San Diego.

Later, when I was returning the carrier, I saw Cinnamon's Twin.  The boys have been rough with her unlike Cinnamon whose feathers, so far, are in good shape.  Cinnamon's Twin also has lost a lot of weight.

"Baby Goose" is all grown up and still hanging around, but seems to have no friends.

And, here is a funny looking gadwall.  I think he might be in the middle of a molt or could be a mallard-gadwall hybrid with genes heavily on the gadwall side:

Junior and Killer Junior, the killdeers were having a lot of fun chasing and yelling at each other.  Shy's mate was really upset about a Cooper's hawk that was trying to attack him, but, then, went for some crows instead.  And, Squeak's eggs have all hatched and all the chicks have been moved to a secure location where people can't get to them.  Shy went with them, leaving her mate all alone.