Looks like a Duck, Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck....Must be a duck!

We have seen a lot of ducks on our lake over the last few weeks.

Some are shy and I have a hard time, even using my zoom lens to capture them before they fly away.

I don't know what kind of ducks this mother duck and babies are, because I couldn't get close enough to see their markings. But the mom's head has fuzzy feathers.

If your screen is wide enough, you will see the mom in the next two shots...as I used landscape on the camera for a wider photo.

Look at this beautiful family of ducks:

She has seven babies...which is great..usually I only see them with five survivors:

This female mama mallard comes by our dock and bay almost every day:

She often brings her frisky babies with her and swims right up to the dock, begging for food.

Look at the drop of water dripping from her beak!:




Here is a closeup of one of her babies....this one still has the fuzzy, downy feathers on it!:
Look at the water droplets on his back...(they are pretty waterproof. Thus the saying: Like water running off a duck's back!):





This is the Mama Mallard again...she had an itch that just needed to be scratched.
Ahhhhh....a little to the right...............

On the lookout, protecting her babies:

(See her beautiful blue side feather?):

One of her downy babies, splashing about by the dock:

"What?", she's saying. "Aren't you done taking my picture YET?"

"The LEAST you can do is give me food for my work, then! Have YOU tried to take care of seven baby ducks on this huge lake? It's hard you know!:

We have a routine now, on the nice evenings.

We have dinner and go down and sit on the pontoon, overlooking the lake and take in the lovely summer breezes.

It isn't long before she spots us, and here they all come, swimming up fast and making little quacking noises for food.

Sometimes we bring bread crumbs down and reward them. Other times, I keep apologizing to them saying that we have none, and she gives me that LOOK (like the last photo). You know, the look that makes me feel reallllllll guilty for not bringing them food everytime.

But she forgives me, and comes back again and again.

They then swim in the grass right beside the dock and eat in there for 15 minutes and then swim away. At least we always have the "salad" bar there for them.