Jump Day 2016

Today is the day they leave the nest.  Experts say between 6 and 9:00 am.  Our ducklings ended up leaving at 10:00, so the kids and I had 4 hours of anxiously watching "duck tv" this morning.

We had been wondering how these little ones would get out from the bottom of the nest box.  It's about a 12" climb to the exit.  Surprisingly (at least to us), they wedge their little webbed feet into the grooves on the wall and scale it like experts.  Well, they practiced a lot first.

In the end, 18 of the 19 eggs hatched.  17 of the 18 left the nest on their own and the last little one just could. not. make. it.   I was watching from outside.  After mama and her babies swam away, I went to go check the nest to see how many eggs had hatched and was surprised to find one still struggling inside.  Normally I wouldn't hold one of the wild ducklings, but mama was getting further and further away.  Last year, the mama duck swam away and immediately left the pond, so I didn't want to take any chances.  I pulled little Peep out and (after a quick photo) released him into the pond.   He loudly peeped and peeped while swimming away.  Eventually Fancy heard him and came back to get him.

Enjoy these super cute videos of the little ones learning to climb, then eventually following Fancy out.  (Once she left, they climbed out so fast we couldn't believe it! )  Still photos of what happened outside the box.  Until next year...

Practicing climbing with mama's help.

Jump!

Quick clip view from the outside (1).

Quick clip view from the outside (2).

The welcoming committee:  Fancy waits for her ducklings
to join her in the water, along with another mama duck and her
older/bigger ducklings.  How sweet!

Peep.  I rescued him from inside the nest.  He could NOT get
out on his own. Really, I wanted to keep him!  But, I let him go.

Peep reuniting with his mama in the pond.  He peeped
and peeped until she heard him and came to get him.

Together at last. 

Cuteness overload.

Baby ducklings have to be one of the cutest baby animals out there.  Maybe even cuter than puppies.
I want to go out and grab a duckling to hold so badly (but I won't....)!

Here are a few more videos to end hatch day. (Note: If the videos won't play, switch your browser to Chrome - this seems to work better.)

Ducklings napping.  Once the kids fell asleep,

Fancy left the nest for a quick swim and some dinner.

Ducklings waking up from their nap.  The first one

awake quickly wakes up the rest of the crew and soon

their is a duckling mosh pit.  Adorable.

Mama duck is back in her nest for the night, trying

to contain her brood.  

They are hatching!

The little wood ducklings started hatching this morning.

Fancy has been very loud for the last 24 hours.  For weeks she has been relatively quite - just sitting on her eggs all day long, save for a few quick breaks to swim and eat.  But starting yesterday, she has been moving around a lot and constantly making clucking noises.  I think she was talking to her eggs.  I know from past experience with the mallard eggs we incubated, that you can hear them peeping from inside their shells.  I'm sure she heard it too!

This is a still shot from our camera.  It's using night

vision, so the color is blue.  The two eggs in the center 

with the black spots are pipping. 

We first noticed a few eggs "pipping" (term for the very beginnings of hatching) around 7:30 when Fancy went out for breakfast.  Shortly after that she returned so we had a harder time seeing what was going on.  Not too long later, we saw a couple of tiny ducks peaking out from under mama!  And now they are just multiplying like crazy.  There were 19 eggs, so if most of them hatch it will be a very crowded nest!  

Enjoy these videos, taken during different stages this morning.  I'll update again later when they are done hatching.

And believe it or not, they will ALL leave the nest for good tomorrow morning! I can't miss that...

This first video shows a cute little face in the top 

left corner.  Be sure to turn up your sound!

Here you can clearly see the first two ducklings.

  Fancy is trying to keep them tucked under her, 

but they don't seem to agree. You can also see Fancy

moving around the empty shells.

In this clip there are way more ducklings! And if you

look closely under mama duck on the right, you can see 

one coming out of it's shell (more in the next video).

More of the little one coming out of it's shell.

You can see Fancy helping him out. 

So much cuteness!  And they aren't even all hatched!

Check back later, and I'll post more when there is more to see! 

Waiting game

This is how Fancy spends her days now.   Leaving only for less than 30 minutes at a time to eat.   Peacefully sitting or sleeping on 19 eggs (many of them belonging to the other Hen). No matter.  Fancy will mother them all.  Not much to show these days... We expect hatching the 3rd week in June. If anything interesting happens before then, I'll let you know. 

 🐣. 

A view of the ruckus from outside the nest.

It has become apparent that these duck fights will continue every day until both are done laying.

Fancy (the one with the "fancy" head) spends much more time in the nest than Bella (I had to name her something to keep them straight. Bella means 'beauty' in Italian and Latin - and really, both ducks are very pretty ladies.)  So the nest is Fancy's and Bella is the daily intruder - but, she really needs a place for her babies, too!  So we give her a pass and wish we could tell her that there will be more nest boxes available next year.

At any rate - the squabbles continue each morning.  Today, I decided to capture the view of what the duck fight looks like from outside the house.   As you can see, the nest is really rocking! If you listen closely, you can hear them squawking and banging around inside the nest.  At the end of the video, one of the ducks flies out.

Below the video is a picture of the waiting line to get inside.  Fancy does NOT like this and gets really agitated when Bella is sitting on top waiting to get inside.

Soon they will be done laying - each hen can lay around a dozen eggs.   Once they are done one of them will sit almost full time on the eggs and then the 30 day countdown to hatching will begin again!

A view of the ruckus from outside the nest.

It has become apparent that these duck fights will continue every day until both are done laying.

Fancy (the one with the "fancy" head) spends much more time in the nest than Bella (I had to name her something to keep them straight. Bella means 'beauty' in Italian and Latin - and really, both ducks are very pretty ladies.)  So the nest is Fancy's and Bella is the daily intruder - but, she really needs a place for her babies, too!  So we give her a pass and wish we could tell her that there will be more nest boxes available next year.

At any rate - the squabbles continue each morning.  Today, I decided to capture the view of what the duck fight looks like from outside the house.   As you can see, the nest is really rocking! If you listen closely, you can hear them squawking and banging around inside the nest.  At the end of the video, one of the ducks flies out.

Below the video is a picture of the waiting line to get inside.  Fancy does NOT like this and gets really agitated when Bella is sitting on top waiting to get inside.

Soon they will be done laying - each hen can lay around a dozen eggs.   Once they are done one of them will sit almost full time on the eggs and then the 30 day countdown to hatching will begin again!

Monster Cookies!

My new favorite recipe for a healthy snack.  

Tastes like a cookie, but filled with better ingredients. 

Mostly. Don't count the M&M's.  

Since our daughter is dairy free, so is this recipe.  It's also really easy to make this one gluten free if you so choose.  (Variation included below.)  And, because I think that if you are going to take the worthy effort to bake, you should always make extra - I would suggest one of the following:

- Make up an extra baggie or two of the dry ingredients.  Print up the recipe and put it inside the baggie.  Next time you are craving home baked goodness you are already partway done!

- Make up an entire addtional batch, but don't bake them.  Instead, place the unbaked monster cookies on a wax paper lined baking sheet.  No need for spacing - just pack them on there.  Freeze them until solidly frozen.  Pop them off and into a freezer bag.  Now you can easily bake one at time - or the whole batch - with total ease!  You'll be so glad you planned ahead.  

Yum. 

Wet ingredients

•   2 Eggs OR 1 egg and ½ cup applesauce
•   1/2 cup Peanut butter, creamy

•   1 tsp Vanilla extract

•   1 T. coconut oil, melted

•   1/2 cup almond milk (or regular milk if you choose).

Dry ingredients
•   2 cups Oats
•   1 T. Baking powder
•   1/4 cup Brown sugar, light
•   1/4 cup white sugar
•   ½ bag Chocolate chips*
•   ½ bag M&M’s (optional – leave off for DF)
•   1/4 tsp Salt
•   1 1/2 cup whole wheat or gluten-free flour

*DF Chocolate Chips are available made by Enjoy Life (I bought mine at Target) http://enjoylifefoods.com/our-food/baking-chocolate/chocolate-for-baking-dark-chocolate-morsels/ or Trader Joes semi-sweet chocolate chips are also DF!

Directions

Mix dry ingredients together in one bowl and wet ingredients in another.

Combine.  If the mix is too dry to hold together in a cookie shape, add more almond milk (or milk) until it does. 
Scoop onto cookie sheet with the ¼ cup scoop.
Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. 

Note: If you can't help but eat the dough - go ahead if you used the applesauce instead of eggs! :-)

We have a new tenant!

We have a new tenant (or two?) and so the cycle begins again.

I have read that it is not uncommon for a nest to be used twice in a season.  The key is cleaning it out between uses.

I'm not sure when the new hen moved in as I had turned the monitor off for awhile (no need to monitor NOTHING).  On a whim, I turned it back on on Monday and happened to catch a new mama! After she left her nest for the day, I went down to do some sleuthing and found there were already four eggs.

Plain head hen.

There seems to be one "main" duck and another "occasional" duck.  I really need to give them names - but I haven't come up with any good ones yet.  You can actually tell them apart as one has a very plain top-of-head and the other has a lighter, fancier top-of-head.   The plain hen was in the first picture I got, but the fancier hen seems to be there the most.  Hmm.

Fancy head hen.

Below you can see pictures of both ducks and a video of the two of them fighting for ownership of the nest.  It's no where near as dramatic as the first video a few weeks ago - but there is some loud squawking and feather pulling.  Seems that the fancier duck is the most upset by the intrusion.  Eventually she seemed to give in and just waited for the plain duck to leave (see picture).

Mid duck fight.

Things have settled down and the fancy head duck seems to have given in to the situation.

 
I'm going to keep checking in and counting eggs once-in-a-while so I know when they'll hatch.  Otherwise, we wait.  Enjoy.

We have a new tenant!

We have a new tenant (or two?) and so the cycle begins again.

I have read that it is not uncommon for a nest to be used twice in a season.  The key is cleaning it out between uses.

I'm not sure when the new hen moved in as I had turned the monitor off for awhile (no need to monitor NOTHING).  On a whim, I turned it back on on Monday and happened to catch a new mama! After she left her nest for the day, I went down to do some sleuthing and found there were already four eggs.

Plain head hen.

There seems to be one "main" duck and another "occasional" duck.  I really need to give them names - but I haven't come up with any good ones yet.  You can actually tell them apart as one has a very plain top-of-head and the other has a lighter, fancier top-of-head.   The plain hen was in the first picture I got, but the fancier hen seems to be there the most.  Hmm.

Fancy head hen.

Below you can see pictures of both ducks and a video of the two of them fighting for ownership of the nest.  It's no where near as dramatic as the first video a few weeks ago - but there is some loud squawking and feather pulling.  Seems that the fancier duck is the most upset by the intrusion.  Eventually she seemed to give in and just waited for the plain duck to leave (see picture).

Mid duck fight.

Things have settled down and the fancy head duck seems to have given in to the situation.

 
I'm going to keep checking in and counting eggs once-in-a-while so I know when they'll hatch.  Otherwise, we wait.  Enjoy.

Sad Mother's Day...

Duck house drama continues. Mother's Day had a sad ending for Skyler. We don't know where she is, but she hasn't been seen in days. Our duck TV has gone silent and a couple of us are super sad about it. It's unlike a mama duck to abandon her nest, so we have to conclude that something happened to her. I have been asked/begged/pleaded by my daughter to take the eggs in and incubate them (we have incubated duck eggs before...). But the sad truth is that it is too late.  Once a duck starts incubating her eggs, she only leaves them for around 30 minutes at a time to keep them warm. By the time we realized that she really wasn't coming back, the eggs had been left to cool for over 24 hours. I checked them the other day and they were already very cold and two were damaged. We candled one yesterday and saw no movement. 

It. 
Is. 
Just. 
Sad. 

Perhaps later today or tomorrow I will go empty the nest. It is possible it could still be used again this season. If it does, I'll let you know.  

RIP Skyler and babies.  😥

Maybe we'll start a turtle camera instead....

Time to incubate

Still 15 eggs after a few days, so it looks like the home invader was able to lay only one or two eggs and she hasn't been back since. What does that mean?  If no eggs have been laid for awhile, she is probably done and moved on to 'incubating'.

For a better explanation, I will cite my go-to source, the Wood Duck Society:
"When the entire clutch of eggs has been laid, the hen will begin full-time incubation. This assures that all the eggs have a good chance to hatch together on the same day. During the incubation period, the hen will leave the nest box twice daily to feed (morning and evening) for about 30 minutes.
The incubation period for wood ducks varies, but is usually between 28 and 32 days. The entire clutch hatches in less than 24 hours. The hen will leave the nest box with her new brood on the first morning after the initial egg was hatched. After surveying the terrain for predators, she flies down to the ground and begins calling out the brood. The young ducklings are eager to climb up the ladder inside the box and jump from the entrance hole when called. Getting her new brood safely to a pond for food and cover is essential for their survival."

If that is correct, 28 days from when I first noticed 15 eggs is May 20th. I'll be watching for a few days prior just in case. My kids bought me a Trail Camera for Christmas, so I hope to have that set up in time to catch the ducklings leaving the house as well.

Stay tuned!
‪

Drama at Duck Manor

Yesterday was a high drama day at Duck Manor.
Clearly there aren't enough houses for the number of female ducks and it is causing some fights.

Just after the kids left for school, I heard a lot of squawking on the Duck TV.  I didn't see anything unusual on the monitor, so I looked outside and I saw another female on top of the duck house.
Was Skyler inside protecting her territory or was she outside trying to scare away the intruder?

(It's not uncommon for females to have a "compound nest" - see last year's blog for more.  But I imagine it's pretty uncommon to get to watch the drama unfold.  It isn't a happy space-sharing!)

I got out my camera and snapped a picture of the extra mama duck on top. Then I took a video so I could share what was happening.  A few minutes later the extra mama duck was inside the house and they were in a pecking fight for almost 15 minutes.  This video is just a short portion of that - the end where someone actually won and chased the loser out.   I, of course, am hoping Skyler won out and chased the home invader out - but I have no way to tell.

The last bit of the drama occurred when the loser returned with her male. (Can you believe that?) They sat on top and loudly tried to intimidate whoever was inside for quite a while.  Eventually the female went back in, but she was quickly kicked out this time.  For several hours after that the pair just swam back and forth in front of the duck house, just waiting I imagine. The female inside stayed put.

By the afternoon, the female was ready to leave.  I watched her just sit in the doorway looking out forever before she decided it was safe to exit.   I wish I knew who won.

After she left I went down to count the eggs.  (If I know when she is done laying, I'll know when to watch for them to hatch.)  There were 11 eggs, which is consistent with one a day - meaning that both ducks did not lay an egg in the nest.  We'll have to see how this plays out! 

Drama at Duck Manor

Yesterday was a high drama day at Duck Manor.
Clearly there aren't enough houses for the number of female ducks and it is causing some fights.

Just after the kids left for school, I heard a lot of squawking on the Duck TV.  I didn't see anything unusual on the monitor, so I looked outside and I saw another female on top of the duck house.
Was Skyler inside protecting her territory or was she outside trying to scare away the intruder?

(It's not uncommon for females to have a "compound nest" - see last year's blog for more.  But I imagine it's pretty uncommon to get to watch the drama unfold.  It isn't a happy space-sharing!)

I got out my camera and snapped a picture of the extra mama duck on top. Then I took a video so I could share what was happening.  A few minutes later the extra mama duck was inside the house and they were in a pecking fight for almost 15 minutes.  This video is just a short portion of that - the end where someone actually won and chased the loser out.   I, of course, am hoping Skyler won out and chased the home invader out - but I have no way to tell.

The last bit of the drama occurred when the loser returned with her male. (Can you believe that?) They sat on top and loudly tried to intimidate whoever was inside for quite a while.  Eventually the female went back in, but she was quickly kicked out this time.  For several hours after that the pair just swam back and forth in front of the duck house, just waiting I imagine. The female inside stayed put.

By the afternoon, the female was ready to leave.  I watched her just sit in the doorway looking out forever before she decided it was safe to exit.   I wish I knew who won.

After she left I went down to count the eggs.  (If I know when she is done laying, I'll know when to watch for them to hatch.)  There were 11 eggs, which is consistent with one a day - meaning that both ducks did not lay an egg in the nest.  We'll have to see how this plays out! 

A new spring brings more ducklings.

 

I have had a very busy year, and taken time off from writing this blog.  I've been posting more tidbits on Facebook and Instagram lately and even taken to selling a few things on Etsy!  But it is Spring again, and I simply must revisit the wood ducks.

Last Spring when I chronicled Skyler and her nest of eggs, you might recall that I spied on her by taking photos with my iPhone.  While that worked, it was highly intrusive and she did NOT like it, often hissing at me.   This year I decided to take a higher tech route.   I picked up a video baby monitor on Craigslist and had my husband install it inside the duck house.  It's almost perfect.  It has night vision, sound and a movable camera so I can adjust the view from inside my house.  The only downside is that I've yet to figure out how to record the video for sharing.  There is an a/v port - I just don't know what to do with it yet.  So when I share with you, you will get a video of a video. Sorry about that.

This Spring in Minnesota, the weather has been exceptionally nice, earlier than normal.  Because of that, Skyler* was in the duck house sooner than I expected. She's likely been there more than a week, laying one egg a day -  almost a month earlier than last year.   Last season there were 21 eggs, resulting in 17 ducklings (See here: It's a full nest! to learn about the "compound nest".)  I don't remember seeing wood ducks at all in our pond a few years ago.  In 2015, there were a couple and this year there are at least a dozen - so I guess the babies came back!

In an ordinary year, a wood duck will lay around a dozen eggs.  After today, Skyler should be at ten.   I'll need to count each day after she leaves the nest so I can determine the hatch date - around 30 days after the last egg is laid.  Isn't that amazing?  All the eggs will hatch at the same time - around 30 days after the last one was laid.  So some eggs will be much older than the others, yet they all hatch together!  God is so amazing.  The mother duck can't lay more than one egg a day and she wouldn't be able to care for them if they all hatched on different days for two weeks.  So they all hatch on the same day. Wow.

While we wait on the hatching, here are some pictures and videos for you to watch.  If anything interesting happens, I'll update you. Enjoy.
(And if you know how to record video from a baby monitor, let me know!)

* Last year I named the mama duck Skyler as my husband and I were in the midst of watching Breaking Bad... and it just sounded like a good bird name.  I don't know that this is the same duck as last year - but I'm going to assume it is, because it doesn't really matter anyway.

On the first day that I noticed happenings in the
duck house - there were 8 eggs.  Aren't they pretty? 

My baby monitor spy cam, mounted inside the duck house. 

Skyler, with night vision.

Skyler with a little color in the daytime,
as seen from our new baby monitor.

The camera adjusted to watch outside the duck house opening,
watching for Skyler to return.  My husband calls this "Duck TV". 

I caught a few of the adults swimming by yesterday.

Just hanging out on the eggs.  About 10 seconds before 

the end of the video, you can here her clucking. 

Skyler is busy adjusting her eggs and fluffing up the nest.