Back at the Watery Nursery

Western S. Dakota is having a heat wave right now; the temp's supposed to reach 99F tomorrow, not much lower today, so I'll be indoors...good thing I got out yesterday...but first, here's photos from the second half of my outing on Tuesday...

I left off in Vanocker Canyon at my Elk Creek stop...walking along the gravel road looking for birds, I heard but didn't see any...no sign of the common yellowthroats...just this chipmunk eyeing me curiously...

Driving back towards home, I couldn't resist turning off onto Elk Creek Rd. for another look at the ducks on 'The Pond'...lots of widow skimmers were clinging to the grasses by the water...

The gravel roadside is dotted with dusty sunflowers...

I had to ponder this...a female mallard and a pied-billed grebe chick...babysitting? Adoption? Or just a confused chick following the wrong mama...

Another pied-billed grebe chick...they look ticked off, don't they?!

A male ruddy duck, its bill no longer bright blue as breeding season is past...

Swimming along with the male, a female ruddy duck...it's always touching to see the couples...

Nearby, another female ruddy duck with five chicks...ok, now where's pops?

Not to be outdone...gulp... count 'em, eleven chicks! Look out Kate Plus Eight! (Gawd no, I'm NOT a fan of that show)...I thought this was a ruddy duck but the head coloring is all wrong...closest match is a female redhead...or a-typical ruddy? Dunno...

I didn't see the eared grebes at first, but they were on the north side of the road instead of the usual south side pond...the chicks are definitely larger...

Another mom eared grebe and her chick...they're just too cute.

Speaking of chicks...back at home, we've got a sad situation...a fledgling house sparrow is hiding in a shrub by the bird feeders...it cannot fly and it may be abandoned, don't know if the mom/dad come around...it comes out and looks to the other sparrows when they arrive to feed...am assuming it's injured but it also could be ill, doesn't seem 'all there' (maybe due to weakness)...I've put water on the ground for it but am not expecting it to survive.