🐤WOOD DUCKS

We noticed wood ducks on the pond in the spring. I put a camera out and found them on the point. Eventually, I put up a nesting box.


The wood ducks appeared on the pond in April. Still nothing in the two boxes at the frogpond.


Wood duck box on the wetland
Feb., 2023 – Box #1I had a heckuva job removing it: More work to do!  Home repairsDratted Red Squirrels! new baffle: the kids helped: We had weekend visitors!.
May 18th –  Box #1: Ambling down to the back 40, I flushed a wood duck momma 📹 .Sure enough, quite a few eggs. A bear walked by 📹 !
May 25 – Box #1: Butch climbed the tree  📹 nearby.
May 26 – I was able to check the nest box #3, and there were cold eggs, with one egg squished.
June 3 – Box #1: Momma and twins   📹 worked at it, ripping apart the box.

2022
April 11 – we cleaned the wood duck boxes
April 19 – wood duck pair   📹 across the pond
April 22 – a pair of wood ducks out kitchen window
April 23 – male crossing  📹 to frogpond
April 26 – wood ducks 📹 crossing to wetland, trailcam
May 1st – sunset, 📹 on nesting box #2
May 4 – downy feathers in box #3
May 10th – about 8 or 9 eggs 📹 
May 14th – perhaps 11 eggs  📹. Should hatch anytime after June 1st. 
June 5th – I had to check. She flew off, and no sign of hatching.
June 8 – all fledged.

2021

April brought the ducks. 
April 17th – first batch of eggs. They should hatch mid-May. Off to the big city! (post)
All you can see is the wood duck 📹tail!
May 2 – felt inside, and counted 15 eggs.
May 16 – all but two hatched. (13/15)
May 18 – I heard a noise in the back. There were three ducklings there. One was stuck in the chicken wire in the garden. I picked it up and took it down into the gully 📹where the others were. 

2020

April 5th – first ones spotted
April 30th – mating behaviour on the pond
May 1 – I found box #1 totally emptied. Eggs eaten, and on the ground. Wood ducks on the pond
May 16 – eggs well covered on nest #3.Wood ducks and other critters Wood duck disaster
It could be mid-June when they hatch. 
June 5 – all but two hatched.

2019

I have three nesting boxes on the frog pond. Two of the three have hatched out. The last one hadn't hatched yesterday. We'll see what happens today.

Box #1 was the 2nd one to be filled. Hatched May 27th. 12 eggs.
Box #2 is due to hatch around June 5th, 10 eggs. 

Box #3 is the earliest to have been laid. They hatched May 30th. There were 22 eggs! 

2018 Wood duck nests

June 2017 – Frog pond update: Wood duck box #2

boxes #3 and #2
my repaired box #3
Wood duck box 3

        – Cleaning out the wood duck nesting box
       –Wood ducks hatched!
Box #2

2014 –  box #1 

3 comments:

https://linsartyblobs.blogspot.com said...

It's lovely to see wildlife in the natural state. I've never seen otters in the wild only in parks in cages. Thanks for your visit to my blog and the lovely comments you left.

eileeninmd said...

Hello, Jen

The Wood Ducks are my favorite. The males are beautiful and the ducklings are so cute. I hope they all survive since hatching. Wonderful collection of photos. Thank you so much for linking up and sharing your post. Happy Saturday, enjoy your day and weekend. PS, thank you for the comment on my blog.

Anu said...

Hello. Thank you for this interesting post. The Wood ducks are beautiful looking birds.