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Things have been quiet in the duck houses this week.

West nest box
As you probably know 9 ducklings departed from the west nest a week ago. Since then a hen has been briefly inside check it out for just a few minutes yesterday and again today, so we’re hopeful that there may be a second round of nesting there.

South nest box
The hooded merganser continues to incubate 11 eggs with hatching expected within 3 days of May 17th. Trivia: the wood ducks go out for food in the early morning (around 6:30) and late afternoon (4:30 or so) whereas the merganser always seems to go out for lunch at noon.

East nest box
Ducklings are due to hatch next week on May 13th plus or minus a few days. I once again checked the eggs by candling them (shining light into them) while the incubating duck was out for supper yesterday. There were 17 so 2 eggs were added by other hens since the last time I checked on April 27th. I removed 4 that were very undeveloped and had no chance of hatching and I left the 13 that were opaque to light because of a developing duckling inside.

The momma duck looked around for a few minutes then flew a U turn to go back into the nest, two times. But at about 8:30 after the third brief inspection she called her ducklings and within a few minutes they were all out of the west nest box and ready to leave.

She led them down to the creek and they went downstream. Since it’s hard for ducklings to swim against the current we seldom see them again. After 1.5 miles the creek flows into a lake where we often see duck families in the spring.

Here’s a short video of them where the creek flows over some shallow rocks behind our neighbors house. They’re already completely functional little water birds, just minutes after they left the nest and only one day after they hatched!

The ducklings started hatching this morning and continuing into early afternoon. I just finished setting up the outside camera so that tomorrow morning you can watch the action both inside and outside. As usual, for details about viewing the cameras and links to them, go to the main birdsgv.com page. I’ve added a special block of information about using two browser windows.

What to expect tomorrow:

• Momma duck has been going out for breakfast early: 6:00am or so, usually for about a half hour. She’ll probably do that tomorrow too.
• When she gets back she and the ducklings will rest for a while.
• The earliest that we’ve ever seen the ducklings jump was just before 7:00, the latest was at around 1:00 in the afternoon. Usually they leave about 8:00 or 9:00.
• When she thinks that the going might be good, she’ll jump up into the entrance and watch. She’s checking for predators or anything that might harm the ducklings. Sometimes she watches for 10 minutes, sometimes for just a couple.
• She’ll then either decide to drop down below the nest and call the ducklings or will go back inside to rest for a while. Sometimes this repeats many times. Sometimes it doesn’t repeat at all.
• As soon as she’s below the nest she makes a soft pulsing call. The ducklings react by peeping loudly and jumping up the sides of the nest box toward the door (or to wherever they think the door might be).
• Once up, the ducklings sometimes sit in the door for while but sometimes will leap right away.
• After they all have jumped – the mother knows this because there’s no more peeping from the nest box – the mother will lead them away toward the creek.
• From when she starts calling until they are gone is usually only a few minutes.

When I checked the west nest yesterday one of the nine eggs was “pipped”, which is the term describing the small cracked spot made by the ducklings 24 to 48 hours before they hatch. In my experience it has been closer to 24. This evening all 9 of them were that way and, I think, even farther along – see the picture below. They might be hatching tonight. We’ll see.

They’ll either hatch tonight and early tomorrow and jump on Saturday morning, or if they start hatching late tomorrow they’ll be jumping on Sunday morning. The ducklings need roughly 24 hours after hatching to dry out, exercise, absorb egg yolk, and get big and strong enough to follow their mother.

When a duckling starts pecking a day or two before ever breaking the shell, it first punctures a membrane inside the egg that separates an air pocket from the duckling. It still gets virtually all of what it needs from egg yolk but it does use the air pocket to start to exercise its lungs and will even use this air to make little peeping sounds inside the egg before it hatches. I’ve heard this and would like to record it someday so you can hear it too but I’m not sure how – maybe a small microphone in there. It’s a very tiny sound.

When the duckling does pip (break through) the eggshell that lets more air in, but after breaking a small spot nothing visible changes on the egg for about a day. Then, when ready to hatch, the duckling starts to peck and then rest, and then do that some more as it gradually – it takes hours – turns itself around inside the egg by pushing with its wings and feet. Finally when it has broken a complete circle the shell falls in half and it’s out. The duckling still has nourishing egg yolk (inside its body somewhere) to absorb after it hatches and in just hours it changes from a tiny wet blob into an active fluffy duckling.