Mama wood duck and her babies

After leaving their nest, our wood duck family swam for a bit and then walked out of the pond through my neighbor's yard and were not seen again for awhile.

Then, one day, that same neighbor - Judy Voigt - was able to capture a few pictures of Skler, our mama duck and her babies swimming by her shoreline.  Due to the high number of ducklings with her, we can be pretty sure it is the same family.   These pictures were taken at the end of June. So excited to see them swimming around!  Thank you, Judy!

Here she is, from a distance, carefully watching over her 17 babies.

Adorable, right?

A close up of mama, some of her ducklings
and a whole bunch of painted turtles.

Next year, I hope to have some sort of camera inside the duck house for a whole new experience!
Happy Summer!

They have arrived! Cute cute cute wood duck babies.

The ducklings started hatching yesterday late afternoon.  Even though I knew it was coming I was quite surprised to peek in with my camera and see extra faces!

I checked again before bed and happened to catch Skyler out for dinner.  I can confidently count at least 13 ducklings in this picture! I was also able to take a quick video.  In the very beginning you can here the peeping.

A warm wiggly pile.  I so badly want to hold one!
(But I didn't.)

Look at that sweet little face!

I knew that meant that they would be leaving the next by early the next morning.  I set my alarm and went outside to keep watch.  I shouldn't have paused to make coffee!  I literally missed them popping out by five minutes.  As I was walking up they were swimming away.  By the time I quickly got out my camera, they were already hard to spot.  I'll try to catch them later in the week while they are out swimming.  Bummer, though.

They are the tiny black spot crossing the stream of sunlight
in the center of the shot.  So fast.

When they are not swimming, wood ducks find nearby bushes to hide in.  I hope they will be safe!  The won't learn to fly for weeks, so their mama will have to watch out for them.  Of the 21 eggs, 4 did not hatch -  so that is 17 ducklings in all.

If you are up for the gory details, here is what the nest looked like after they were gone.  Just a bunch of carnage. Two of the eggs never hatched and two partially hatched.

My  view from the yard after I got up early, but missed the "jump".
Too nice to go back inside.

Hopefully, we will get to see the ducklings as they spend their days growing on the pond.  If I catch a photo of them, I will definitely let you know.  Enjoy!

Waiting no-so-patiently

No ducklings yet.  My guess is that it will be any day.

Each morning and evening I peek in with my camera to see if I can spy any activity. The wood duck society says that once the ducks start hatching, they will leave their nest the very next morning. I don't want to miss it.

Last evening I happened to catch Skyler out of her nest for dinner. I was able to check the eggs a little more closely and I can tell they are not starting to pip yet. 'Pipping' is the term that describes when the ducks first start to hatch.  

While she waits for her babies to hatch, Skyler has been adding even more down to her nest to keep her eggs warm. If you look closely, you can see the eggs under the fluff.

Here is a short video I took this morning when I was checking on her nest. She's not real fond of it and hisses at me. But I can see that she still there and doing a good job.

They are moving!

Guessing around day 16.

                      

This is a guess only, but consulting the chart in my previous post, maybe around day 16 of 30? It's truly hard to tell. We'll start watching for the eggs to hatch around the first week of June.  The coolest new thing to see is that the little ducklings are moving around inside their eggs.  The video doesn't pick up the light too well, but if you look closely you can see it.  

                                   

Itty bitty turtles, tiny frogs and a snake.

Living on a pond, we have a lot of turtles and frogs.   Each spring, we enjoy the catch and release of many. In fact, we have to be very careful mowing the lawn in the spring as the turtles make their way through the yards to lay eggs.  Today, my husband and son found this itty bitty Western Painted Turtle on the driveway and have named him "Picasso".  We will keep him for the day, and let him continue on his way to the pond this evening.  The Western is the most vibrant of the group of painters with a brilliant orange bottom.  He'll grow to be between 6 - 8 " across.

Picasso's belly.

All tucked in, just in case!

Last year we found this baby snapping turtle.  Of course, we named him "Snappy". This is the only time in their life where they are cute.  We had a little fun with it before releasing it....  We also have adult snapping turtles living in our pond (one of the many reasons we don't swim there!).  Each year, we see at least one of the big ones in someone's driveway or crossing the street.   They are usually about 18" or so in size and are terrifying.  I've been told their beaks can snap a broom handle.  I'll trust that to be true.

Snappy in Paris.

He's definitely staring at me...

So tiny, but look at those claws!

Snappy - ready to explore! Check out his long neck and tail.

When they are no longer cute.  This guy was crossing
the street a few years ago.   His shell was at least 18" long,
but from beak to tail he was double that.  

We also have garter snakes.  I don't see these as often, thankfully, but this one slithered out of our landscaping today.  I'm not afraid of snakes, but I really dislike how they can surprise me and cross my path.

Every couple of years, when the spring is just right, we also have a huge surge of frogs.  A few years ago, there were so many that there were masses of them in the streets by the curbs - I guess they were piling up there because they couldn't climb to get back into the yards.  We raised baby mallards that year, and the kids would collect them to feed to the ducks.  They were super cute - and also apparently tasted like candy to ducklings!

Teeny tiny - masses of frogs.

I wonder what we will find tomorrow?

It's a full nest!

The nest is full.

I was able to check out the eggs a little more closely this morning and to my surprise, I found 21 eggs!  A wood duck normally lays around a dozen.
According to the Wood Duck Society, my new 'go to' reference, it is quite common for more than one hen to lay eggs in the same nest.  This is called a "dump nest" or a "compound nest".
I have seen at least one other pair of wood ducks in our pond - so I guess that's possible.  Why? Anyone's guess.  Maybe the second duck just wasn't up to the challenge of a dozen babies.  Understandable...

Wood duck eggs hatch in approximately 30 days from when the last one was laid.  I have zero idea of when that was.  My best guess is going to come from candling an egg.  Candling means to take an egg into a dark room and shine a flashlight behind it.  In this manner, you can see right into the developing egg and gauge it's progress.  We did this a few years ago when we raised the orphaned mallards. When we raised the mallards, we had an incubator - so it wasn't crucial to know the hatch date.  We just watched for it to happen.  With the wood ducks, if we don't have a guess, we will miss it. According to the Wood Duck Society, the eggs will begin to hatch one day, and the next day they will all leave the nest between 7:00 and 9:00 am.  That is a really small window of opportunity. If we can guess the progress, we MIGHT know when to start watching for hatching.

There is a lot of good information online about gauging the progress of chickens via candling and very little about ducks.  Chickens hatch in 3 weeks, ducks in four - so you can't really use that information.  I found one and only one chart online - but I have to make a big guess using it.  I think my best bet will be to try to candle another egg in about a week to make a comparison.  Skyler doesn't love it when I peek in on her (she hisses at me) and I've yet to catch her out of the box for dinner.  That means I've had to chase her out by opening the side door.  I admit, I feel kind of bad about that - so that is why I'm going to wait another week.  Give the lady some peace at home.

In the meantime, enjoy these pictures and be sure to check back!

Single wood duck egg, slightly
smaller than a chicken egg.

I took the top three eggs off so we could see
how neatly stacked all the eggs are.  Each can
be kept toasty warm by mama duck!

All 21 eggs. 

Candling the wood duck egg. No guesses yet on age. 

Isn't it beautiful?
                                                                                                                           

While we wait for baby wood ducks....

While cleaning up some leftover fall leaves, I came across these two frogs.   One is significantly bigger than the other.  Aren't they beautiful?  These are Northern Leopard Frogs.  The picture of them in my hand is with the flash so you can see the vibrant coloring. 

These guys are REALLY loud in the late afternoons and all night long this time of year. Their shrill call attracts a mate.  

Listen to their call here: Northern Leopard Frog Call

We have eggs!

We have eggs!
I don't know how many, as Skyler is burying them in the wood chips, but I can see at least eight.
The only way we could figure this out for certain is to reach in and move around her eggs while she is out of the nest - and she is very rarely out of her nest. The information I read online says that she will leave twice a day to eat, for about 30 minutes at a time.  It's tough to catch her out...

Wood ducks lay an egg a day until they reach their final count of around a dozen.  Once she is done laying, it will be about a month until they hatch.  Isn't all that down fluff pretty? Looks so cozy, too (except for the poop).  Stay tuned!

Watching wood ducks - up close.

One of the things I love most about living where we do, is the constant barrage of nature.

Turtles, frogs, turkeys, fox, coyotes, deer, birds of all sorts and lots and lots of ducks (I really don't enjoy the geese....). We have nature in the city. We live near a nature center, golf course and on a pond - which means an abundance of nearby habitat.

In the past, our family raised some orphaned mallards* (that was an experience!), closely observed a house finch family *(adorable) and are now just beginning to learn about wood ducks - thanks in part to a neighbor who suggested that we needed to get a wood duck box. Ok - let's do it.Wood Ducks are (according to Wikipedia) "a medium-sized perching duck. [They are] about three-quarters of the length of an adult mallard. Their breeding habitat is wooded swamps, shallow lakes, marshes or ponds, and creeks in eastern North America, the west coast of the United States and western Mexico. They usually nest in cavities in trees close to water, although they will take advantage of nesting boxes in wetland locations if available."

Male wood duck (credit Wikipedia)

Female wood duck (credit Wikipedia)

I ordered my wood duck nesting box on Etsy, and my husband installed it near our shoreline using a post and some cement to keep it in place. The box came with cedar shavings for nesting material and we added a cone baffle to keep out squirrels and raccoons (in the south, snakes can be a problem). Predators are a big issue for wood ducks so it's good to take the proper precautions to insure the safety of the ducks. Boxes can be mounted on trees and fence posts as well - but they are less safe for the birds.

My box came with a door on the side to clean and observe. I used it to peek inside the other day and was surprised to find a hen already nesting inside! We scared each other quite a bit and she flew out in a huff. I think for a while, we'll try to observe her more stealthly, using my phone camera and the entrance hole, rather than opening up the side.

Wood duck nesting box, ordered on www.etsy.com

Skyler

I've been reading up on wood ducks, and apparently they lay around a dozen eggs, one per day. After they have all been laid, they will begin to hatch in a month. My daughter has named the hen "Skyler". I'm going to peek in on Skyler every few days to see if anything changes.... 

                                             
Check back and watch and learn with us!

*Note: Click on the links above to follow us in past years as we learned about mallards and house finches!