So why yet another wood duck jump day video?

Well, this one has cute ducklings and interesting behavior … oh, wait, I guess they all have that. But it also has – a duckling with an eggshell stuck on his head – several Slo-Mo segments – a good story – improved editing (I hope) – and a nice ending.
Enjoy!

(Nothing new at the East nest: the hen is diligently incubating 19 eggs. No new eggs have been dumped into that nest in the past couple of weeks. Other wood ducks are still around in the creek now and then, but I think the egg laying is done for the season.)

17 little ducklings went out into the world this morning. There were 4 unhatched eggs and sadly two ducklings that hatched too late to go with the others.

The hen started calling for them to jump at 8:43 am and the last duckling left at 8:54. Mid-morning is a typical departure time but eleven minutes is longer than the usual time to empty the nest: sometimes 3 minutes is enough. The ducklings seemed hesitant and also a pair of wood ducks walked up close to the nest and the hen stopped calling for a few minutes. She threatened them with an open bill and some hisses. That added some drama because we weren’t sure what the other ducks would do or how the mother duck would respond. (When a similar thing occurred last year as shown in this video – which now has almost a half-million views on YouTube! – it was almost a disaster for the new duck family.) But this time she ended it by rushing at the other hen and making her back off.

Also unusual – something seen here just once before, again shown by that 2018 video linked above – is that she flew up to the nest box after she already had some ducklings with her on the ground and went back inside. She did that three times. Once she almost entered, but didn’t, and her flapping gave two ducklings perched in the doorway a jumping assist. The other two times she went back inside but then turned around and came right back out again. It looked like she was telling the little ones to “Get on with it! Here’s what you have to do and right now is when you should do it!”

I was thinking perhaps I wouldn’t make a video this time – how many variations of it can there be? – but I got some good footage while they were down in the creek so I’m going to do it. I’ll post it here when it’s done, of course.

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The ducklings in the west nest will almost certainly jump tomorrow morning. The hen likes to wait for full daylight to be able to see if the area is safe, but the sun rises before 6:00. On the other hand, sometimes she waits until late morning. See my post from yesterday (scroll down to “What to expect on jump day”) for more about what to watch for.

Below are some photos taken today: 1) Momma duck is wearing a nice feather hat, 2) One of the first times she moved aside: one duckling is already dry, another has just emerged from its egg, 3) The ducklings when the hen was out getting supper this evening: the hooded merganser duckling is left of center with the Don King haircut.

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We opened the nest box at 4:00 when the hen was out for supper and found that most of the 23 eggs were pipped. That is, the shell was slightly broken and pushed out from the inside in one small place. This is done by the duckling inside when it pecks at the shell with its “egg tooth” which is a sharp little protrusion at the end of its bill.

If you look at the West nest camera you might not see anything different: just a sleeping duck. But if you watch for a while you may see her moving around and turning the eggs by digging down with her bill. The ducklings break out of the eggs by themselves, but they can’t get out from under other eggs so the hen turns them. She’s reacting to peeping of the ducklings within the eggs, before they have even hatched. (It’s a very soft sound and hard to hear via the camera’s microphones.)

Soon after they hatch you’ll be able to see them as they get more and more active and stronger, alternating with periods of rest. They will most likely jump from the nest box on Sunday morning. On jump day I plan to have a third camera set up outdoors, facing the nest box, so with two browser windows you can watch both the inside and outside action simultaneously.

Here is a link to the outdoor camera. It is offline right now (7:30 Friday) but the link works to take you to where the camera will be live, later on. I’ll post again when the camera goes live.

What to expect on jump day:

The hen will typically go out for breakfast early in the morning. This gives you a good look at the ducklings but they will usually settle down and sleep in a pile, which makes them impossible to count. When she returns she will typically stay in the nest box for a while as the ducklings alternate between climbing around and staying quiet. At some point the hen will jump up into the nest box opening and study the surrounding area, often for many minutes. She’s looking for foxes, dogs, cats, hawks, crows, people, … anything that might harm the ducklings. Often she is not satisfied with the first look and will drop back into the nest and stay for another 5 to 20 minutes. She may repeat this several times.

Finally, when she decides the time is right, she will leave the nest box and drop down to the ground below it and start a soft pulsing call. The ducklings respond by peeping loudly, jumping and climbing inside the nest box, and jumping from the opening. This doesn’t take long. It’s usually only a few minutes from when she starts to call until the last duckling has jumped. She then leads them away and they never return to the nest.