We continue to see our Wood Duck couple each morning but we have yet to see any little ones in the pond or elsewhere. Not wanting to disturb the happy family, we have been reticent to peek in the nest box; but since our little brood is way past due, we decided to row out to check it out. What we found is puzzling. Inside the nest box is all the nesting material (lots of fluffy wood chips and duck down), many broken egg shells...and several newly-laid eggs! While we're glad to see that our couple is going for a second round, we don't know the fate of the first brood. Either the ducklings fledged and have been well-hidden in the woods, or duckling predation is very high around here. We know that owls, hawks, foxes and mink prey on Wood Duck ducklings and we have plenty of those (heck, they've gotta eat, too!). Large mouth bass will also gobble them up, but I really don't think our bass are that large-mouthed.
So, we're going to keep a close eye on this second batch and hope for a more typical outcome this time around. At any rate, I take comfort in knowing that Nature's plan is always the right plan. As long as we don't try to "fix" anything, everything will happen exactly as it's meant to.
