Wood Ducks - New Tenants

Warning! This story ends well, but there is a picture of a duckling that didn't make it. There is other interesting content in the picture so I'll leave that picture small; you can click on it to see an enlarged version if you wish.

Back in March we had at least two wood duck pairs vying for the wood box that our neighbor Jonathan Schlueter installed for us.  As late as April we had a pair trying to get in to the box where presumably their eggs were. But they were rebuffed by the resident hen.

This pair was rebuffed in early April when trying to access the nest.

Mama ducks and ducklings evacuated their nests in the neighborhood boxes this past week. We have been worried that a crow got in there in late April to wreak havoc on the nest; but thanks to Jon's maintenance this past weekend we discovered some ducklings survived. I saw Jon out in the hood on Sunday and he offered to come by to check the box and get it ready for

Jon Schlueter climbing up about 20 feet to work on the duck box

Jon found evidence that about 10 ducks hatched and made it out of the box with the hen. One duckling hatched but didn't get out of the box; one duckling didn't quite hatch all the way; there were about a dozen unhatched eggs. The high count indicates that a couple of hens were laying eggs.

Warning: the next picture shows a duckling that didn't survive.

Jon displaying the contents of the box with a dead duckling and many unhatched eggs.

Jay Watson and Jon talk ducks.

 Sunday morning we had a pair hanging out on our deck checking out the remodelled apartment.