New Chicks

A saved entry from Sunday, 18/11/07

It had been almost a week since I last visited the duckpond, and I knew I had to get photos, fast! I knew from watching the Midlings grow that the new baby Cutiechicks would not look like this for long. So even though it’s the middle of a heat wave, I decided to find them. Plus I had an art interview tomorrow I had been preparing for all week and I wanted to take some photos for it and also needed a distraction.

First I visited the Snuggleducks. They were still stuck in their own little pond, though they were about fully grown and probably capable of flying out. Maybe they are just happy in their pond. They'd better learn soon, though, since the water is the lowest it's ever been and summer hasn't even started.




As you can see, their wings are fully grown. Their tail feathers aren't as neat as an adult's, though.

Like the last time I took pictures of them, there was an adult black duck* visiting the pond who occasionally chased them to give them a peck!

Then:


Now:

Note the direction and strength of the ripples.

I got in some other photographers' way capturing this duck on camera:



Wait a minute…



Is that…



BABY DUCKLINGS!
They must have only hatched in the last few days!

There was a lot of rather vicious fighting between adult black ducks, which might have something to do with the new ducklings. But strangely, although I've seen them attack ducklings before, these ones left the babies alone! One 'mother duck' would be with the ducklings before being swooped, crashed and chased away in flight by another duck, while the ducklings remained untouched.

I found some moorhens: an adult, two Midlings, and a Cutiechick! I was in an awkward position to photograph them; standing on the edge of the bank, leaning over, camera in one hand and the other holding cycad leaves back.



The chick had grown feathers over its previously balding head, but its ‘finger’ wings were still bare red. Gorgeous! Meanwhile, the other Midling was spotted a few metres away. The Midlings are so independent now, and big, especially compared to the tiny Cutiechick.



The adult was vary wary of this cormorant, who ignored it and let another moorhen literally brush past without batting an eye.



But where were the other three Cutiechicks? I began to look for them and found the cheeping black ducklings! There are eight of them; that’s a lot to look after.



Bye, ducklings.



Hello, two other Cutiechicks! (They're under the lilies in the centre)
Though supervised by another adult, the one spotted before came right away when they started cheeping, with the first Cutiechick following closely behind.



The adults feed the young'uns.



Bye, moorhens and Cutiechicks.



Unfortunately, that leaves one Cutiechick unaccounted for at this point. I hope it's okay.

There was no sign of the wood ducks today either (though I feel they are probably safe), so I haven't been able to photograph them. They were there last week!

* Pacific black ducks are not black; they are the common brown duck you see in just about every freshwater body. I don’t know which idiot decided to call them that. Why not ‘Pacific brown duck’?