I get to the lake, park and walk out on the sidewalk. I’m thinking “I may not be able to find that purple gallinule family in this big pond. As I’m standing there thinking that, a purple gallinule flies right in front.

A little black fuzz ball comes running to him. Well, I found them. But, they were far out in the middle of the pond so all of these are extremely cropped. This little one was the youngest of the three babies in this family.

This one must be the oldest baby, skipping over to catch up with  mom.

This one looked like the middle baby. They were at the “Getting Brave” stage since all three were running all over the place nowhere near the parents.

Mom didn’t stay long. She checked on the kids and left. I’m assuming she’s out looking for food.

The middle one was out cruising for food himself.

I walked a little bit further down the sidewalk and I hear this quiet “peep, peep” coming from under the leaves.  Out pops a tiny baby, only a few days old.

Then I see the parent come over to the baby.

Such a tiny little thing. An only child.

There were two purple gallinule families at the neighborhood lake. I had heard about the one family with three older kids so it was fun to see the little baby as well. So far all three of the older ones are doing well. They have a lot to look out for. There are lots of hawks that cruise this lake and the lake is full of alligators. Hopefully, both families can avoid being lunch and grow up to be big beautiful purple gallinules.