Here is a young gadwall chick that is currently at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota. I love how they use feather dusters for the chicks to snuggle up to in lew of a hen.

Boy, migration has hit and I am having a tough time keeping up. Monday I tried to do some birding and filming in Dakota Co and kept getting distracted. It started with an injured Canada goose that I found on hwy 55 that I picked up and drove to the WRC. The goose unfortunately didn't survive but at least it was off the road. While at the WRC Tami was kind enough to give me a brief tour. They had a duckling that didn't look like the mallard ducklings that were there already. Turned out they had a gadwall. They are already innundated with young squirrels and rabbits (most of which didn't need to be there). The avian nursery was very quiet, they only had in a few species which included house finches, robin, rock doves and house sparrows. I kind of miss my volunteer days there, but alas do not have time to help out this summer. If you are looking for a fun summer volunteer project, I can't recommend the avian nursery at the WRC enough. It's only 4 hours once a week and each week is a surprise. You never know what species will end up in there and it's fun to have the chance to feed live mealworm so young woodpeckers. Of course you end up having to take care of grackles and the like as well but it's still fun to watch them grow.