East nest, finally
Today, or maybe yesterday, the East nest box finally got started. A wood duck hen is now incubating 7 eggs there. A couple of those were laid a month ago but they might still be viable.
If you’ve been watching you may have seen her in the East nest box quite often in the last few days. On Thursday she was there all day and when I checked after she left late in the day, the eggs were toasty warm. However she then didn’t come back and left the eggs to cool all night, so I’m not sure that day “counts”.
In any case, she is there tonight surrounded by lots of feathers – an unusually thick blanket – so incubation has started and ducklings are due about 28 days from now.
Here’s a schedule of events; mid-May should be very busy!
Hatching Date | Eggs | Departure | |
May 15 +/- 3 days | West nest – wood duck | 18 | 1 day after hatching |
May 15 (guesstimate) | Cardinal nest | 3 | 7 to 13 days after hatching |
May 16 +/- 3 days | South nest – hooded merganser | 12 | 1 day after hatching |
June 3 +/- 3 days | East nest – wood duck | 7 | 1 day after hatching |