Cormorants love the ducks

Two cormorants were back enjoying their rides on the floating sprinkler ducks.  There was no fighting for position as each claimed his own floater and climbed aboard.  One floater was my neighbor's from across the canal.  The sprinkler floaters are actually Canada geese replicas, but I usually call them ducks.  They don't seem to mind, nor do they mind hosting the cormorants!

Cormorant #1 chose our floater.

Cormorant #2 chose the neighbor's floater

Keeping their distance and on separate floaters.

The gallinule mom and dad are still taking good care of their three little ones.  They keep them together during their outings, and dad usually ventures into the backyard when feeding time comes and snags some duck pellets to feed the kids who tend to stay across the canal with mom.  He makes a lot of trips back and forth to keep them fed!

Mom and dad keep the kids close.

Dad is on the way back to the kids with a yummy morsel in his mouth.

A pretty, young blue jay stopped at the bird feeder looking for a snack today.  He doesn't have his full complement of feathers yet and still is a little fluffy.

Young bluejay makes a stop.

Sometimes, usually when I change the water in the birdbath, one of our Muscovy females decides that it looks like a good spot for a bath.  She really doesn't fit and fills the whole thing and splashes out all the nice clean water.  But she seems to enjoy it, which is nice.  I would prefer she bathe in the canal, but it seems that all the ducks prefer the water in my cleanly filled water bowls and birdbath.  Unfortunately, when they're done, all the water is dirty again. 

Not much water left when she's done!

This afternoon, after it rained, our kitty Callie went outside and took a great interest in the floating chlorine dispenser in the pool.  I always worry that she will reach over too far in an attempt to get it and fall in, but she hasn't done that in a few years, thankfully.

That must be a fascinating chlorine floater, at least if you're a cat!