Today I Give You a Mated Pair of Wood Ducks and Their Six Little Ducklings.
The male is the colorful one on the right and the more muted colored female is on the left.
I did the image editing and loaded them into the template last night so I could just write the post when I got home today. I was browsing through #featheredfriends and notice @nelinoeva posted The Duck Family https://peakd.com/hive-106444/@nelinoeva/duck-family .
So I'm thinking (yes I do that sometimes) what are the odds we both come up with ducklings on the same day ? Well great minds think alike I guess ;)
As I arrived at the pond a lady and her kids were throwing grain to the ducks (rolled oats I think) and all the ducks were heading in for lunch. Then I here one of the kids yell "DUCKLINGS", "They have ducklings".
I stop and took several images with the 18mm to 55mm and flipped over to the Sigma 150mm-600mm to get some close ups of these beautiful birds. I ended up taking a ton of images at the pond and I didn't even come here to image ducks lol. I came down here to image the new Sky Walk they built off in the forest behind the duck pond.
I was glad to see people feeding them something more wholesome than bread as it's not very good for them. I didn't take anything to feed them but if I do I bring some grapes( they love grapes) or grains. When I still lived next door I would gather up the snails in the backyard and put them in a coffee can to take down to the pond. The ducks go wild over them.
Ahhh How Cute
A lot of the images I captured had a fair amount of noise in them =( I was shooting shutter priority and forgot to limit the ISO to 400 and when I checked the image info I found the ISO going as high as 1300 so I got more than a little noise from that high of an ISO.
More cuteness
Here's a shot with Mom and five of the six ducklings
A few more bites before following the gang back to the island.
After a nice swim and some lunch it's time to go to the island for a quick preen and a nice nap
Come on you guys hurry up.....
Ooohhh What's that O.o , lets go check it out.
Turtle snuggle !!!
This was a surprise, I've never witnessed a bunch of ducklings chillin with a turtle. The turtle has been laying there in the sun and is probably nice and warm and the chicks are insulating the turtle's shady side so it looks like a win win.
They are not bringing that thing home I'm putting my flipper down on that
.
One more shot before I head off into the trees to find the Sky Walk.
On passing by the ducks on my way out of the park I decided to see if the ducklings wee still kicking it with the turtle... Yep all of them.
Oh wait stop pushing or I'm gonna....
Faaalll
Ducklings laugh it up with the turtle
Mom scolds ducklings. Ducklings deny pushing sister in pond and blame Turtle
Duckling swims away mumbling some very unladylike chirps, vows to get her own Turtle
And Does nener nener nener
Well that's all for this post I had to split the ducks into 2 posts, the ducklings in one and the adults will be in the next one. This post was long one even after breaking to two posts and pairing down the duckling images.
Hope you all enjoyed the images. See you all nest time.
@melinda010100
@nelinoeva
@barbara-orenya
and the rest of the gang a @featheredfriends where you can post and find all your feathered odds and ends
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This is a wonderful post and your photos are great! I occasionally have a few come in and land on the spring, but they are always incredibly timid and I can only get through the window photos.
Thanks @melinda010100 the ducks at the parks duck pond here are hip to the fact that people = food. They have a lot of wood ducks this year, before they drained and cleaned it out last summer it was mostly Mallards and Mud Hens. Most of the ducks here are wild birds that live here year round, Easter ducklings that grew up and got released here, and some that use as a stop over or just for spring summer. If the pond gets fish in it again we will get Kingfishers living here year round as well.
I just went quackers over these photos! What great shots you got! What stunning specimens you got! It never ceases to amaze me at how brilliantly these ducks' markings are.
I can already see the markings on the little ones. I really like the shot with the turtle next to the baby. :)
You rock nature! These are fabulous! Great to see you posting again!
Thanks @dswigle they are colorful aren't they lol.
I'm going back in a few days to image them a little better. I was down at the pond to check the redwood sky walk they built back in the forest behind the pond so I was set up to shoot wide angle landscapes with a fixed 28mm lens, then the kids start yelling ducklings on my way by and I see the wood ducks. It was late in the day and I didn't have a lot of time.. so I just popped on the 650mm flipped it off custom settings to shutter priority, cranked up the shutter speed and started shooting.
The ducklings napping on the turtle was a hoot you couldn't see them very well out on the island, I ended up letting a few people take turns looking through my camera with the telephoto lens so they could get a good look and sent a few images of them from my camera to their phones via bluetooth.
I haven't checked back to see if you got them again! Shame on me. That was such a fabulous post, when I finish my comments, I will check! :))
No not yet but I have to hurry on the ducklings as they grow up fast.
I'm shooting for this Monday as the park is closed to vehicle traffic and not many people there.
That's perfect!! I love when it all works out like this!
I look forward to it! No pressure, of course! :))
No problem the hurry factor is from mother nature, those ducklings will be ducks in a couple a weeks lol
Yrs! I get that! Nature stops for nobody.
See you in a wile. I'm going to log and finish the edit on the columbines and drop that flower post. =)
Yes!! Thank you!! :))
What an adorable family of wood ducks you photographed during their visit at the pond! Even with her muted colorings the female's plumage is quite lovely and the male is a colorful work of art.
I also got a kick seeing the ducklings snuggling with the turtle - definitely a first for me. Parents better teach the little ones to be weary of snapping turtles though or there will be less quack, quac..., qua... sounds!🦆🐢
How have you been doing? @chromiumone
Great seeing you posting again!💫
Hello @ninahaskin I'm doing well thank you. Much better now that I stopped working so much.
Hope all is well with you these days.... Nice to see your still around the Hive ;)
The Wood Ducks were a pleasant surprise. The coloring on the female is muted due to she is the one who tends the nest and she is colored to blend in with tall grass, brush, etc. The females pictured wouldn't flap their wings for me but they have brilliant bands of dark iridescent blue and green feathers that almost glow in the sunshine. The male on the other hand... the only place he could hide a nest would be like a Crayon factory.
Also we don't have snapping turtles here, I'm not sure but I think they are common Western/Pond Turtles, the ones at this pond have always been very docile and don't bite they ether flee or fort up lol.
Thanks for dropping by =)
Thanks =)
Awww, how cute they are.
I have seen ducks and turtles sharing the same pond but never anything like that - the turtle snuggle 😀.
Thanks @nelinoeva You had some great shots of some ducklings today as well.
It was a pleasant surprise to the wood ducks here and a real bonus that they had chicks as well. I've never seen Ducklings with a pet Tuttle before lol.
Beautiful images there. Loved all of them. We do not have such beautiful ducks here and its a pleasure to see these on HIVE.
Thank you @sofs-su nice of you to say so.
I have a bunch more images of the adults to post sometime tomorrow.
Will wait to see them. 😀
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I want to see this creature face to face😀
Turtle is wondering why he is being harassed by a bunch of weird fuzzy creatures.
Ha... Yeah the Turtle was a very good sport about it. They were camped out with it for a couple hours.
oh, and they are very beautiful. thanks for sharing
Yes they are.
Going to be heading back there soon to spend a few hours with the ducks, I was pushed for time with this one.
Thanks for stopping in @ratel
I'm a fan of your birdwatching posts, you have some of the best images on the platform.