Date night

Last night we spent the evening down by the pond, enjoying the campfire, eating chili, and taking in the pre-summer scenery.  A chili dinner down at Camp Firefly is our version of going out for an expensive meal and a play.  And though you don't know for sure who the characters are going to be or what the story line is about, you know that something interesting and surprising will happen nonetheless.

Last night's story began with a 'possum stopping by, oblivious to our presence (as they so often seem to be), scouring the forest floor for tasty bugs.  He (or she...it's impossible to get a look under the hood of a 'possum) appeared stage left, spent about an hour making his way up the creek bed, and exited stage right toward the big rocks up the hill.

Act II was a musical number - a medley performed by a trio of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Eastern Wood Peewees and Wood Thrushes.  And even though their songs were in a foreign language, it was clear they were singing about protecting territories and attracting mates.

Then, the story line reached its climax when Wood Duck mom, Lady, silently emerged from the brush along the pond shore, with approximately 6 of her brood in tow, to paddle around for only a few minutes before just as silently moving back into the safety of their den.  This was particularly thrilling because the last time we had seen Lady and her 13 kids was when they swam out of the camera shot on May 10th.  Earlier that day, we had just decided that all the ducklings - like their gosling brethren before them - must have fallen prey to the many predators that roam our woods.

The play concluded at dusk, when the bats arrived to perform their nightly aerobatics, and the 'possum reappeared, making his way stage right to left, bringing our story line full circle.   

Hello world

Our Wood Duck babies began hatching on May 9, 2013 at 8:00 in the morning.

By noon, a total of 13 fluffy ducklings had been born.

That evening, Lady left the nest box around 5pm for her usual dinner, leaving the clan alone for the first time.  She returned about an hour later where she and her baker's dozen spent a safe and cozy night together.

As youngsters, they are well developed.  Unlike many other newborn fowl, Wood Duck babies look very much like their adult counterparts.

On May 10th, around 10am, Lady left the nest to call to her kids from the water below.  Here is video of the babies climbing the ladder, where one by one they leapt from the opening to join Mom in their new watery world.

It will be several weeks before the ducklings will be capable of flying, so until then they will have to stay near the water, which is their safest place of refuge.  But it is now May 13th and we haven't seen Lady or her brood since they merrily paddled out of the video shot on the 10th.  I am choosing to believe that the whole family is hiding safely in the brush that overhangs the pond shore and that at least some of the 13 youngsters have managed to evade our marauding raccoons. 

First paddle

Five geese babies were born on April 21st around 5pm.  Here is a glimpse of their first paddle the next morning.  

All is calm

On April 7th (the day after the interloper incident), Lady began staying on the nest 24/7.  The Wood Duck incubation period is around 28 to 34 days, so we should see babies in early May.  Since then, things have been pretty boring in there...just much nest-fluffing and snoozing.  We are still seeing the male coming around in the mornings and evenings, swimming around and eating along the pond shore. And no other Wood Ducks have appeared since the 6th, which seems like good news. 

A new development

Last night was business as usual for our Wood Duck mother-to-be.  She arrived on the nest just before 8pm where she remained all night long.  Every 30 minutes or so throughout the night she rotated her big pile of eggs while pulling a significant amount of down from underneath her feathers that made things all fluffy and warm in there.  She left the nest this morning around 6:45am, but not before covering everything up in all that beautiful down.

Shortly afterward, we noticed a new, second pair of Wood Ducks paddling around the pond.  Then, at 7:30am, one female entered the box.  The behavior of this female was not like that of the one we're used to seeing, so I suspect this female was an interloper.  Upon entering the nest box, this one stood up and wiggled her feet down into the nest (feeling around for eggs, I think; or worse, maybe damaging some of them?), and there was a good amount of wing-flapping during the short one minute that she was in there.

 

 

This foreign female rejoined the other three, and for the next hour we watched one pair of Wood Ducks calmly follow the other pair around the pond. (By the way, all the while our pair of Canada Geese remained unfazed by this Duck Drama unfolding before them.)  At 8:23, nearly an hour after the interloper appeared in the nest box, a female returned to the nest.  It seemed she was putting things back in order, poking her bill way down deep into the nest and carefully getting everything properly covered.

As you know from my blog posts in previous years, we're not certain whether any of our Wood Duck broods have ever come to fruition because we've never actually seen any ducklings.  We know that eggs always get laid because when we clean out the box after the breeding season, we typically find 3 or 4 broken eggshells among several whole abandoned ones.  We also know that every year, multiple Wood Duck pairs arrive around the same time and they all get very interested in this one nest box.  So a couple of years ago, we put up a second nest box, about 100 yards away in the woods, along the pondshore so it's not too far from the water.  But oddly, no ducks ever take up residence in that box, even though it is identical to the one in the water.  So I wonder if we are encouraging some sort of unnatural nesting behavior with the manmade nest boxes...especially since we have several natural and ideal cavities in our many snags around our property.  I'll keep you posted.

A closer look at our Wood Ducks

One of the many signs that warmer, sunnier weather is imminent is when the birds start singing and the Wood Ducks arrive at our pond.  As in years past, they arrived on schedule, in mid-March.  But unlike previous years, we can finally see what goes on inside that nest box.  Here is a rundown of the daily routine:

• For the past couple of weeks, the two have been arriving at the pond each morning around 6am.
• While the male paddles around the pond, she lays an egg (or two?) inside the nest box.  
• Then she rotates the newest eggs in amongst the eggs she laid in previous days.  
• Once she has everything arranged to her liking, she buries the whole bunch in the wood chips.
• She leaves the box, and joins her hubby where they both dine on bugs and such around the pond shore.  
• Around 7am, they both fly off into the sunrise, not to be seen again until the following morning.  

But now we have a new routine.  Last night, April 3rd, was the first time she stayed in the box overnight.  When she got ready to leave this morning, we got a good look at her clutch.  We estimate 10 to 12 eggs.
 

Here she is burying them. 

And here's what the nest looked like as she left for the day at 6:37 (the camera clock hasn't been adjusted for daylight savings time yet).

You (or a predator) would never even know there's anything of interest in there!  Here's hoping for a successful outcome this year.

Surprise...you're on candid camera!

Thanks to our great friend, Lawrence Wire, we now have 24/7 infrared video cameras that capture some of the clandestine wildlife happenings around the property.  We have one of our cameras trained on a pair of Canada Geese that arrived in early March.  From our high-tech spying, we have learned that Canada Geese build large mound-nests of sticks on the ground, and they prefer nesting locations that allow for only one or two points of entry.  They lay about 3 eggs per brood.  This pair started incubating around March 24th.  The mated pair stays awake throughout the night - probably the most dangerous half of the day, especially when nesting in the woods rather than in a suburban parking lot - and they do most of their snoozing during the day.  Throughout the night, one of them (I assume the female) remains on the nest, while the other (the male) stays nearby in the cattails.  He guards the water side entrance to the nest, while she faces the land side entrance.  When feeling threatened, the female stands up and spreads her enormous wings while the male, never far away, comes to her side to help address the threat.  Stay tuned for more exciting wildlife behavior as it occurs.