The little clean-out door at the bottom of the Wood Duck nest box started to come open yesterday. It was imperative to get it closed back up, lest the whole nest was going to slide out the bottom of the box and into the pond! In doing this minor but urgent repair, I inadvertently sent the female (I call her Lady) scuttling out of the box. I'm afraid she was none too happy about the intrusion and gave me a good talking to on her way out.
With the box vacated, I couldn't resist the urge to peak inside where I found about a dozen creamy white eggs nestled in a bed of wood chips and duck down. I'm not sure when Lady started incubating, so it's hard to say when we can expect to see the ducklings, but I'll estimate her "due date" as April 26th. Since last year's brood mysteriously disappeared (we had empty eggshells, but never saw the ducklings), I am really hopeful that we'll get to see the little ones this time around. I'll keep you posted.
