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.

The East nest duck has a feather blanket (mixed with wood shavings) that is about 2 inches thick.

Here’s a schedule of events; mid-May should be very busy!

Hatching
Date
EggsDeparture
May 15
+/- 3 days
West nest – wood duck181 day after hatching
May 15
(guesstimate)
Cardinal nest37 to 13 days after hatching
May 16
+/- 3 days
South nest – hooded merganser121 day after hatching
June 3
+/- 3 days
East nest – wood duck71 day after hatching

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