Ninja Colson

Our little call duck, Colson, is the smallest duck in the backyard now, with the exception of Muscovy Chirpie's little babies.  Even the Muscovy juveniles are bigger than him.   So it was especially funny to watch him in action today.  There is one particular Muscovy male, a rather large and handsome one, that Colson simply does not like.  Whenever Colson sees him, he lowers his head and chases him away.  Yesterday, Colson wouldn't let the Muscovy come ashore, and chased him away in the water.  Later the male came into the yard and Colson also chased him away from the food and kept chasing until he flew into the canal.  That's the only Muscovy I ever saw Colson go after.  He's usually the one getting picked on.  Mind you, the Muscovy was literally 4 times Colson's size so this might not be a good strategy for Colson.  But it's all in the attitude.  He's like a little chihuahua who doesn't realize he's small.

Little big man

The Muscovy made the best of having to stay in the canal, though.  He was dabbling across the canal with one of the harem girl Muscovies when all of a sudden he jumped on her in the water and mated with her.  I thought she was too young but I guess not.  Muscovy male Red Eye went over to see what his girl was up to, but didn't interfere.  (it's his harem!)

This girl is a woman now

Muscovy Chirpie came by yesterday and today with her one remaining little baby.  She has lost another one.  These little ones just don't last.  I'm not surprised considering that Chirpie goes off to eat in another area of the backyard and doesn't seem to worry about where the baby is.  Today he was stranded and terrified amidst the big ducks.  Finally he got into the pool and seemed to feel better there.

I like the pool but I miss my brothers

Muscovy female Cutie2 is still on the nest and is sitting almost constantly.  She takes a brief dinner break in the backyard and goes back to sitting.  I think she is done laying and is now incubating the eggs.  When she comes to eat I make sure she gets a nice pile of seeds.  I toyed with the idea of putting food near the nest but I don't want to attract any others to it, ducks or otherwise.  While she was eating I looked into the nest and there seem to be 13 or 14 eggs in there.  Wow!   For the most part, when she is not sitting, now she is leaving the eggs covered with a blanket of down feathers which keeps them nicely hidden.

The juvenile Muscovies and their mom still come by once or twice a day.  Yesterday they spent a lot of time hanging around the water bowl by the ficus bush,  and today they stayed in the side yard.

Hanging around the water cooler.

This is the biggest of the juveniles and almost certainly a male.

As for the other Muscovies, Black Foot still comes around but not so much as before.  He seems to have lost interest in the backyard goings on.  When he does come by, he expects special treatment - I've spoiled him!   His son Big Boy is still sticking together with Cutie Tips.  I think he will soon become the dominant male, taking that role over from Black Foot.  Male Patchy2 was a rather fierce dominant male a few short months ago and then gave up the role when he went into his molt.  I haven't seen him in quite a while.  Pretty Girl, Sweetie, Smiley and Blackie2 are still missing.

The small tricolor heron is here daily either on the boat or at the edge of the water.  He was pretty successful at getting minnows to eat by standing very still and darting his head into the water to grab them.

Patience, patience...

Ani the anhinga spent the last few days drying out or sleeping on the dock post after fishing in the canal.

I'm king of the hill and you're not

As for the other smaller birds, the female cardinal was back harvesting some more millet seeds,  A whitewinged dove was at the feeder, and the pigeon was scrounging around in the morning.  The palm warbler appears to have returned from up north and I think I saw it in the tree near the dock.  A noisy lonely crow stopped on the bird bath - they seem to have been missing for a few months too.  And, one of my least favorite events seems to be happening - the grackles are coming back.  Their numbers increase daily. And at darkness, I saw an osprey on the dead tree limb across the canal.

This afternoon an uncharacteristically quiet limpkin stopped at the beach to groom himself.  It was quite a contrast to the noisy geese.  I guess the limpkin didn't think he could compete.  Truth be told, he certainly could.

I love this weather!

 I'll end with the story that is always with us, it seems.  A huge iguana was chasing another across the backyard.  I believe it to be a male.  He showed his dewlap either to scare me or to express his intentions to mate with Cutie or Cutie Tips (or me!).

This was one imposing male iguana