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.