Cute As Can Be...

This morning I looked out the window and saw some Canada Geese and their babies. I quickly grabbed my camera and a bag of soy chips and went out to feed them and get some photos. They didn't seem afraid of me at all. The parents came to the chips first to check them out but didn't eat any. Instead they let the babies feast on them. There were two separate families. One family consisted of the parents and 3 babies and the other consisted of the parents and 4 babies. All of the babies seemed to be about the same size. It was fun to watch them. The babies stayed with their perspective parents in a little group although they were side by side. Two of the adults got into a big fight. I figured it was the 2 males but I have no idea. I can't tell the male and female apart. The fighting was so interesting to watch but it got quite arrgressive. It went on for at least 5 minutes before one retreated back with his family. The mothers and babies watched as the fighting went on. I had never seen baby Canada Geese before so this was exciting for me. Here are a few photos of them.

the fight!

If that was not exciting enough for me I took Millenni outside to let her pee this morning and was walking along our campsite near the water when a duck flew out and scared me half to death. She flew out of the rock wall and made all sorts of noise and flew into the water and swam around. Millenni and I continued walking then on our way back inside I happened to look down and saw the duck had a nest with 7 eggs she has been sitting on. How exciting! I took another photo then we went inside so the mother duck could return to her nesting. I noticed little ants crawling all over the eggs and wondered if they were hatching. I didn't see any cracks but I didn't touch any of them. I didn't want the mother to desert them. This afternoon I went back to look and mother duck was sitting on the eggs and flew away as I approached. When I looked inside there were only 6 eggs and no ants. I don't know what happened with the other egg. Maybe it was cracked and the ants were getting to it and the mother duck disposed of it. I don't think any predators would have been eating the egg in the day light hours. Mother duck is out there on the nest again as I write this blog. I would love for the babies to hatch while we are camping here.