Favoritos de bbdown

Warm, still morning on the lake. The male Blue-billed Duck was almost involved in a collision with an Australasian Coot chick, in the equivalent of it's teens.....

The Coot chick was approaching fast from the left, obviously unfamiliar with the need to give way to your right. The Blue-billed Duck male needed to hastily slow up and warn the Coot. Close escape, could have been feathers everywhere!

Cool, cloudy day, late afternoon.

Mother Blue-billed Duck and her baby diving and feeding on the lake. Also present were a pair of males. The mother was cautious, chasing off other birds that came too close.

Warm, sunny day.

A mother Blue-billed Duck protected her nest site in the reeds from other birds approaching, including 2 male Blue-billed Ducks.

She was seen periodically warning off curious birds from the nest site - they'd slowly paddle in to look, stretching their necks forward, she'd be barely visible darting to the edge of the reeds and back in as the other birds darted away. She chased off curious coots and grebes before the Blue-billed males got too close and she decided, late morning, to head out into the lake with the baby to feed.

The first 2 pics show the baby hiding in the reeds, centre frame, as the mother watches vigilantly for intruders having just chased one of the male Blue-bills back a little.

She chased away 2 amorous male Blue-bills before settling in to dive and feed with the baby. Coots, moorhens and grebes which got too close were chased off. At one point the baby joined in and chased off a grebe which has half again bigger than the baby! The surprised mother may have been a little proud as the duckling paddled back to her (Picture 8).

Definitely watching and learning from it's mother, the baby could be seen closely and intently observing her dive before itself diving for food. Occasionally they dived simultaneously, cruising and diving to the centre-right and right-rear quarter of the lake.