Egyptian Geese: father and fledgling.

The shape of this means it looks much better in large ("L").

I found it difficult to choose my picture today, because I visited the fledglings in the early afternoon, and the light was low but crisp causing nice shadows... They were all looking very pretty, and I got shots of the 7 fledglings in a huddle (some of them sleeping), and also nice ones of the parents. I chose this one simply because they're striking amusing poses, and also because it shows the size range that they now display: the father is the largest, and this is one of the smaller fledglings.

The father was being irritable today and kept moving the fledglings along; he wasn't driving them away insistently, but would periodically push them away as if he simply wanted to assert his dominance... They responded very meekly, but this one quacked when surprised by the father one time. The quacking is still funny every time; I wonder when they'll grow out of peeping and (now) quacking...

There are still only 7 fledglings on Eagle Pond. I hope the other one is OK and simply off exploring.

p.s. I've put another picture on Blipfolio here.
The fledglings were resting (they can now stand quite well on one leg); they were keeping an eye on me, and the parents were watching over all of us from the mound in the background.