Well, the mallards have managed to nest and breed. I know this because this morning one of the adult females came swimming by followed by an industrious line of eleven ducklings. They can't all be hers. Not only is it unlikely that she could lay that many eggs, she certainly couldn't sit on them. I know ducks babysit for each other: a mother duck will swim over to another one and fly away, leaving her ducklings, who will be watched over by the other one until she comes back. Maybe that's what was going on here, and the babysitter was taking them all out for a jaunt. Or maybe they also adopt? If one female dies when her ducklings are still little, would the other one take them and mix them in with hers? I did see one of the males, swimming by himself south of me, where the little parade came from, but neither of the other pair. In any case, this female had something in mind: they were seriously motoring. I thought she was just taking them to the pilings, because it was low tide and all the snails and barnacles were exposed. But no. They swam about a quarter mile while I was watching, and I lost them when she took them under the Sanitation Dept. pier. One of the fireboats moors on the far side of that pier, and I'm thinking maybe the sanitation guys or the firefighters feed the ducks, and she was heading for breakfast.