Baby Ducks on Lake Nelson

The weather was warm last week, so we've been going on our morning walk early. One day, we came upon nine baby ducks sleeping on a log by the dam.

Baby Ducks

 

Yesterday, we thought we saw a baby duck with its parents, but something wasn't right. The baby was too large and the male usually isn't involved in raising the ducklings. We think it was an immature ruddy duck that was following two mallards.

Today, we spotted our first real mallard duckling of the year.

I'd like to call back summertime ...

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

Baby Ducks on Lake Nelson

The mother duck brings her six ducklings by often. They are growing very fast and have already learned how to jump back in the lake from our dock. They are now old enough so that some are developing an independent streak and no longer follow mom in a straight line.

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.

Baby ducks may be cuter than baby geese

 

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).

Baby Mallards

Here is the family of four baby ducks swimming in the stream past the dam. They are getting larger and are a little more independent.

Mallard and Ducklings

We promise to stop posting pictures of Mallard ducklings soon. However, these were too cute. They've been coming out a dusk and tonight was the first dry day in a while.