Two East Cameras are Online

East nest: The wood duck who has claimed the East nest started incubation on Friday. The eggs in that nest were cool to the touch on Thursday afternoon but she stayed overnight and they were warm on Friday. Estimated jump day is thus May 18th plus or minus several days. Wood duck incubation time is anywhere from 28 to 37 days so it’s hard to know until the eggs start hatching on the day before they leave the nest. She has 12 eggs: 10 of these are wood duck eggs although one is small and perhaps infertile, two are hooded merganser eggs. (If that seems unusual, see this section of my Ducks Info page.)

West nest: A wood duck left an egg yesterday morning; I hope she decides to come back. There are just two eggs now. The other is a hooded merganser egg that has been there for more than a week. It’s dormant but still alive and can hatch if a duck starts to incubate.

South nest: Not much activity. A few quick visits.

Cameras: Something new: I’ve set up a camera looking at the East nest box from the outside. The view is off center partly to avoid showing my neighbor’s back yard and partly because the creek has duck activity too sometimes. You can watch both inside and outside the nest box simultaneously and that can be interesting, especially in the morning when other ducks are around. Here’s what was happening at 10 o’clock this morning:

A female was considering the nest box while her guy stands by, looking good as only a male wood duck can. She probably has an egg to lay and was considering putting it here. Each time she looked in …

… the resident duck hissed at the intruder. “Go away! This nest is taken!”