muscovy baby ducks | Dina's Wildlife Adventures

You can always find turtles chilling on the trash bumpers at Crescent Lake Park near downtown St. Pete.

I found some cute duckies walking along the sidewalk.

Usual birds around the lake include the loggerhead shrike, a roseate spoonbill and an anhinga drying out.

I found an unusual pair of birds sitting in front of my car, northern rough winged swallows. I’ve seen them in other parks before but they are fairly rare.

A cloudy morning at the park.

The big banyan tree has been fenced in for several years now. They are trying to keep it alive since it’s so old (not sure how old though). It’s taken a beating over the years with people climbing and playing on it.

It looked like it has snowed along the street in front of the park. I realized there were several cottonwood trees in someone’s yard. I had never noticed this before so I must not have been here when they were blooming. I’m sure it’s beautiful when it’s in full bloom but what a mess it was in the street and yard.

After leaving the park I stopped by Rouse park on the bay in St Pete, only a few minutes away. The royal poinciana trees were blooming and the are a lot of them in this small park.

Enjoying an early morning on the bay in late May.

I had read Kim’s post about the baby muscovy ducks that had been dropped off at the lake and the old Papa Goose is being a surrogate parent. I saw them from across the lake so I sat down for a while and waiting to see if they were heading over my way.

There were only 4 that I saw that morning. One was staying close to Papa Goose. The other 3 were cruising around like they owned the lake.

They floated their way into the lily pads and came near the edge of the lake. I’m sure they came close to see if I had food for them.

When they realized I didn’t, they started eating the bugs off the underneath of the lily pads.

One came on shore for a minute. They are so cute as babies.

I saw what looked like a much younger baby also with them. He was sitting on the ground and didn’t want to move. Maybe he was tired from trying to keep up.

They sat down to rest while Papa Goose stayed out in the water. He kept his eye on me though.

Lake Morton should have it’s own TV show. “Life on the Lake”. So much drama. A few years ago, there was a black swan couple that raised a baby goose. I don’t know whether the parents had abandoned him or something happened to them.

Two or three years ago, someone was stealing swan eggs. The city of Lakeland put up cameras in trees this year to try to catch them. I don’t what came out of that. Did they have fewer eggs stolen this year or catch anyone from the cameras? The city was also taking the baby swans away from the parents and raising them at a facility somewhere else. I think the death rate of baby swans on that lake was pretty high. Out of the tons of babies born this past spring, only a few were released back in the lake. I think I read 7 juveniles were back. So what did they do with the rest of them? Sell them off?

Then you have Papa Goose raising any lost muscovy babies as his own. This is not the first time he’s adopted and raised them.

Every once in a while, something unusual shows up like the lone bufflehead who hung out at the lake for several weeks.

In the winter, you have the bald eagle hanging out on the church cross looking for his next meal in the lake.

Always something going on!

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