I'd like to call back summertime ...

... and have her stay for just another month or so

Duck eating a Fish

Duck eating a FishWe live on a small lake and have watched a mother mallard raise a family of five ducklings this summer. Today, one of the ducklings brought a fish into the yard and tried to eat it. Who knew that ducks ate fish?

Babies

Baby Tree Swallow (we think)




This was weird. A mother duck and her 6 ducklings were resting on our floating island. A cormorant also likes sunning himself there so he jumped up to join them. The mother sheltered the babies but they shared the island for a few minues.

Summer Ducklings

Lake Nelson's eleven baby ducks are almost the size of their mother now. We were surprised one evening to see another mother with eight tiny baby ducks. She isn't as attentive a mother and some of the ducklings were at the top of the dam and others at the bottom.  However, we were happy to see the family reunited the next day.

Late Spring Birds

 

 

 

With the spring warbler migration ending and the weather warming up, we are spending more time in our backyard and less time going out birding.  Our feeders and birdbaths keep enough interesting birds in the area and Chris has become the Kool-aid mom for birds.

The baby ducks are growing, but all 11 and Mom still fit on the floating island and have consumed all the expensive plants we had on it.  We are waiting for baby orioles to appear.   The night heron keeps to himself and occasionally fishes from the dock.

Eleven Baby Ducks: Beat that Octomom

 

We are happy to see our little floating island planter getting some use.  So far, we've had just a pair of sandpipers, a lone duck or turtle on it.  At dusk today, we saw the mother and all the baby ducks on it.  It's hard to count them on the island, but all 11 were on it.  She must be a very good mother.

 

Ducks on Lake Nelson

Female Wood Duck

Wood Duck with Mallards

American Widgeon

A few migratory ducks are spending an occasional evening at Lake Nelson. Today, Chris was happy to see a female wood duck by the dock, although the mallards weren't particularly interested in the visitor. A widgeon came by yesterday. Neither stayed long, but the loon has been here more than a week.

Sitting Ducks

 

 

The babies are getting big and imitating their mother.

Baby Duck: That awkward pre-adolescent period

 

This shows the awkward combination of the adult feathers and the baby duck feathers.

Baby Duck Wars

 

 

There are two duck families with a total of 11 baby ducks that have been hanging out in our yard-- affectionately known as the teens and the littles. It's getting hard to distinguish the teens from their mother. The littles are getting bigger too. We've been feeding the littles cracked corn to help them grow fast enough to migrate this fall.

While they used to get along, recently they have been having a turf war. The mother of the littles chases the other family and the babies join in too. It's hard to capture the action in a photo, so there's a video at the bottom that shows one chase.

More Baby Ducks for Marian

 

 

 

 

Marian said to keep the baby duck photos coming. The last is of a duckling leaving. I hope she likes it too.

How many baby duck photos can we post?

Apparently quite a few. Other than baby ducks, there's not much else around, except a wet night heron.

Baby Ducks

 

 

 

Duckling Rescue

When we went for an early morning walk, we noticed the mother mallard swimming around a ring float in the lake that is near the fountains. It appeared to be calling to a duckling that was stuck inside the float. When we got home, we saw that there was still much activity and calling around the float. We took the boat over and were surprised to find that there were actually four cute baby ducks swimming in the inner part of the ring but couldn't make it out. Mike gave them each a boost and the baby ducks quickly caught up with the mother. She actually has a total of eight, but we were too busy to photograph them all.

 

 

 

Baby Ducks

 

 

 

Finally, some baby ducks (and the proud father).

Hey, I thought you said this lake had defrosted

 

Female Ruddy Duck looking for some friends

We haven't been posting much recently. We were busy with our older daughter visiting us from California. The lake was frozen which cut down on the number of waterfowl we see. It's been gray and cloudy. Chris' heart grew two sizes and she put up two Christmas trees.

Anyway, Chris spotted a small duck two days back. At first, we thought it was a grebe, but when we got the binoculars, we saw it was a lone female ruddy duck. She was trying to hang out with other ducks but the mallards, ring-necked ducks, and Canade Geese snubbed her. At least our daughter got to see some of the fancy ducks, even if some were not on their best behavior.

Mallard at Meadowlands Environment Center

Although we enjoy the fancy ducks, we like this mallard photo too.

Everyone needs to rest sometimes

It's been too hot and everyone is sleepy. We caught the mallards taking a midday nap in our yard. George, our cat, likes to sleep when it's hot and sunny (or when it's cold and rainy). Mike caught this squirrel resting peacefully, blissfully unaware of Chris' feelings for his species.

Mallards

We've watched this family of mallards grow up this spring. The ducklings are now almost the same size as the mother.