At 0200 hours, 13 Oct 2002, I am awakened with the frantic calling of the baby duck looking for her mother and siblings. I instinctually believe it is the little white one. I get up but can't see anything, only hearing the loud cries in the night. It goes on and on. I fall asleep again and then am awakened at 0500. The baby is frantic and I feel she is close by so get up and shine the light on her. Sure nuf, it is the white one, and she is frantically swimming from dock to dock calling for her mother. It is hard to believe that this wonderful mother has abandoned the baby. While smaller than the others she seems to be growing, but this week she is definitely lagging behind the more obvious mallard 2. The other 2 are a mixture of lightened mallard coloring. This baby started out pure yellow, now is white with a yellow bill. The other day I broke down and was feeding them oatmeal and she jumped up and grabbed the sack out of my hand. No shy duckling is this one. They were at the fish cleaning station the other evening and each of them got a fill of salmon eggs.
After returning from fishing this morning the baby had joined back up with the mother and siblings. What a relief. I wonder how they got disconnected during the night. It will be interesting to see if she survives.
30 Oct 02: All remaining 5 babies are alive and well, growing and beginning to look like teenager ducks. They always seem to know when I am at the fish cleaning station and I make certain baby white duck gets a few extra bites.
