I love stopping at the pond by the home of the lady I get eggs from for there is usually lots of waterfowl there.
Today I got a special surprise for there were some ducklings out for a swim.
Look at the size of the brood this golden eye duck has - I counted 22!
Golden Eye Duck With 22 Ducklings
Ducklings have got to be the cutest thing and golden eye ducks are divers so they were bopping under the water. Fun to watch!
Close Up Golden Eye Ducklings
Here is another golden eye duck just taking off with a pair of ring necked ducks looking on.
Pair of Ring Necked Ducks Look on as Golden Eye Duck Takes Off
And another one stretching it's wings this time with a male blue winged teal looking on.
Golden Eye Duck Stetches It's Wings Teal Duck Looking On Avocet Walking By
There was a pair of these long legged and long beaked Avocets poking around on the sandbar for food.
This photo is my entry for the Feathered Friends - Show Me A Photo Contest Round 25 - details found here This weeks theme was on birds and sand.
Pair of Avocets Using Long Beaks to Poke in the Sand for Food
There were quite a number of ring necked ducks and as it was later in the day pairs of them had come to rest on the sandbar. It made me wonder why they were not sitting on their nests - perhaps they take a little longer before they lay their eggs.
Pairs of Ring Necked Ducks 1 Pair Teal Resting on Sandbar
Here's a pair of the ring necked ducks resting with the colorful green winged teal.
Pair of Ring Necked Ducks Resting With Green Winged Teal
I wondered where that teals mate was for he was the only one I saw and he mostly was on his own.
Here he is scooping up some feed in the shallow water by the sandbar.
Green Winged Teal Feeding in Shallow Water By Sandbar
There were other teals around but they were the blue winged teal
Pair of Blue Winged Teal Swimming
There were a pair of these teal resting on the mound that earlier I had seen the grebes create and I thought they would be nesting on it but they were no where near there.
Pair of Blue Winged Teal on Mound of Dirt
I did see the one grebe swimming by the other end of the sandbar. Perhaps they chose another spot for their nest.
2 Pairs of Ring Necked Ducks Resting on Sandbar 1 Feeding in Shallow Water Grebe Swimming in Background
Here's one more of the male blue winged teal with a male ring necked duck.
2 Male Ducks Blue Wing Teal on Mound Ring Necked Swimming
Closer View of Ring Necked Ducks Resting
Here's the male ring necked duck again this time by a pair of canvas back ducks
Ring Necked Duck Swim by Pair Canvas Back Ducks
Here's a close up of the pair of ring necked ducks that shows the ring on the males neck.
Pair of Ring Necked Ducks Swimming
And I'll leave you with a pair of canvas back ducks grooming themselves getting ready for the evening.
Pair of Canvas Back Ducks Grooming Ring Necked Ducks Swim By
Hope you had a wonderful Sunday and showed some extra love to all the fathers out there - Happy Father's Day!
Bird images are for the #FeatheredFriends community hosted by @melinda010100
Big shout out to @ace108 for running the Beautiful Sunday tag every week supporting the accounts. Also to @c0ff33a for the Sublime Sunday tag for your random Sunday posts!
The photos were taken with my Canon PowerShot SX60 HS.
Ducklings are always cute, but seeing so many, wow, this is sooo amzingly cute.
What a wonderful day you had!
I love visiting that pond especially when the ducklings and goslings are hatched - so special to see them. I've got some photos of the goslings from a different pond I'll be sharing. Some were getting a bit older so they were looking a little gankly.
wow, that's one big family.
You do have the best ducks! So many different species. Great photos! I hope all 22 of those little ones survive.
That's my hope too! At another pond there are some fairly large families of Canada geese which I hope make it. I got some good photos of the goslings I'll be sharing in my next post.
Lovely pictures here!
22 ducklings, I have never seen so many ducklings together in all my life.
Those long legged avocets look stunning. :D
All those ducklings! They can't possibly be all one brood, can they?
The duck swam away from the shore with her ducklings and there were no other ducks of her kind around so I'm pretty sure they were all hers.
Fantastic posts @porters, that is amazing, 22 babies, I didn't know they could have so many.
Your photography skills are awesome.
Really enjoyed all those beautiful bird pix.
Enjoy!
I was really surprised at the number of ducklings too but it remains to be seen how many will survive.
Glad you enjoyed the photos - I really enjoy sharing them!