There's More Critters Out And About!

Hello everybody. Has everybody had weather as crazy as ours? I am sick to death of the rain. We always get it all in the spring, but never in the summer when we really need it for the crops. The fields are all flooded now, some even high enough that the water is crossing the roads in some places.
Remember that mama Robin from two posts ago? This picture is mama and one of her babies, sitting on our bird bath yesterday morning. The baby is just so adorable! I know that there was at least one other baby, but not sure where it was.
If anybody knows what this funny looking bird is, please let me know. It has long legs. The body appeared to be about the size of a grackle or a pigeon. I've never seen one before, whatever it is!
These two ducks are Mergansers, but I'm not sure which sub-species. Possibly Common or Hooded, from looking at my book, according to their territory. Both of these pictures are of flooded fields, not ponds!
This picture of a male Mallard was taken at the same time I took the pics of the Mergansers. I played with the shadows on this, the same as I did with a previous Mallard in flight in the April 7th post.
This is the same male and a female Mallard. Again, I played with the shadows.
The past few days, I've been going out to Lyle's to take care of his critters while he is down south visiting. I'm pretty sure he went to West Virginia to see his son. There is one dog, one Cockatiel, about a dozen cats(outside) and four pea fowl, one of which is the hen and the other three are males. The picture above is the oldest male's tail. I used the "fluorescent chalk" filter to get the effect.
This is the same peacock with his tail fanned. His name is Peapot!
And this is Peapot trying to figure out what in the world I'm doing! None of them are tame. We can get closer now than we used to be able to.
This is one of the many Grackles that come around here to eat. Between them and the Starlings, I don't know which are the bigger pigs! Again, I played with the shadows on Photoshop for the effect. After leaving Lyle's yesterday, I went taking more pictures, in the rain, no less! I was having a heck of a time. Taking pictures of a Killdeer that just doesn't want to cooperate is a riot! The Killdeer is part of the Plover family. They lay their eggs around gravel and their eggs look kind of like little rocks, according to my Aunt Pat. She gets these birds around her farm all the time and she finds their "nests" in her driveway. I couldn't get a clear enough shot of any, so I gave up for the day. I also can't seem to get close enough to the Horned Lark to get a decent shot. I chased one of them around for a short while too! They won!
I'm going to get off here for now. I hope everybody has a great weekend. I hope it stops raining!!!
TTYL
Love Ya
Lisa