Wood Ducks Observations & Comments

The Observations & Comments page is expository. was meant to be a journal about the Wood Ducks experience here from earliest Spring to leaving - if they do indeed decide to nest here. The time frame might seem out of sync, so are ducks now.

When something like that happens a curious observer wonders: "why are they doing that?" Often a quick on-line search usually answers the "why".

The observation & comments will be changing a great deal, including button name, after some garden areas are planted. Wish I'd learned to juggle when younger.

Bird Longevity. A Great Blue Heron watches Wood Ducks house hunting in early Spring.

FYI: Great Blue Herons live about 15 years, the longest living one was 23. Wood Ducks only live 3-4 years. Mallards 5-10 years, longer in captivity. Black-crowned Night Herons, 3 years in wild, up to 17 years in captivity. Great Egrets can live 22 years and more!.

River birds in a local area live and have families in the same area longer than most human families. Offspring return to raise their young in same area as long as it's viable.

Observation

An important comment regarding our ability to observe each day:

Soon the leaves will emerge on all the trees lining the shoreline. Our daily indoor "early morning" look-out will be lost. We have learned to stay as far away from them during nesting season as possible, especially in early morning when most likely egg laying.

Note: ADD DATES. Right now, it seems the Wood Ducks have quasi-disappeared. But their behavior changes radically when the female transitions from laying her eggs to sitting on eggs. This is also the same for Mallards, probably all ducks. Right now, in early April, it seems too early for her to be sitting on them already, hence the concern when they don't show up a few days in a row, while it's still easy to observe them. Although that might have happen every year and we never noticed.

(Insert egg-laying chart here.)

Although, some nests will be used for "egg dumping" and more than one female will lay eggs in it. That has happened before in previous years, we suspect. But so far, the nesting box hasn't been that reliably busy.

Note to me: Is Check is egg dumping time-frame on chart?

Two factors that may be causing me to be worry over nothing are these, while we try to see what's going on out there all morning, we don't. And after the initial nesting choice is complete, the Wood Duck begins to go inside much quicker, and the male leaves more quickly too.

The other factor is, if she's a young or inmature mother, she might now lay as many eggs. We've never documented this day-by-day before and what's happening might be perfectly normal.

But it's not a "normal" season, so far. There is a great deal of noise and building, constructing going on in the immediate area. Noise travels and is magnified on the river too. So they might have decided it feels too unsafe. Wood Ducks are much more cautious about where they nest than their pals, the Mallards.

Looking at the time-frame so far, she could indeed be starting to sit on her nest. Their behavior changes dramatically then. And the reason why for this is so logical, but was also one of the most surprising thing I first learned about ducks, at least the ones around here, when first observing their nesting habits.

The female will go into the nesting spot and lay her egg or two, then after some time, leave again and won't come back again, until she's ready to lay an egg or two, the next day. This is most logical. The eggs don't begin to grow until the female settles in and sits on her nest, after she has finished laying all of them for that season. (If they begin early enough, sometimes they'll have a second laying.)

Once all the eggs are laid (I don't know how they determine that) she then settles in to nest. The nesting period is 29-34 days and she only comes out to eat. The male usually disappears much of the time, but as I can remember from previous years, does show up especially for her dinner, before sunset, and stays with her for some time then- but not too long. She finishes and then flies right back into the nesting box, and this time, no fooling around. She makes a bee line straight into the hole. How she's able to do this, without hitting her head against the back wall and then crashing onto the eggs is a mystery.

Gardening season has begun! Wood Duck ducklings still haven't arrived! The conflagration of ducks from a few weeks ago has settled down, and rarely see a female. I'm assuming they are mostly sitting on nests.

There has been one family of Mallards with 4 ducklings (see photo.) I'm assuming it is our yard ducks because it looks as if the momma is presenting them to me in front of the dock, and the male is busy eating nearby. When time, will post their photo.

Still no Black-crowned Night Herons, but- the trees are getting bigger leaves. So if they show up this year, we are expecting it to be soon.

The last week or two the river birds' daily habits have grown more erratic. Perhaps that's typical- we've never tracked them daily before and there's purposely no trail cam . Population consequences due to local disturbances from increased noise, major construction, increased traffic and fiber optics plant building in this immediate area will inform us later this season. If the duckling numbers are noticeably down, the chaos could be a factor. Also, once they mature, the male to female ratio is a key way to determine if female ducks felt secure or not. But more about that later.

UPDATE:

Reality Check: It was too confusing having the time-line and observations/comments sections on the same page. Thinking about turning this into a more general duck/bird info and observation page. The Time-line is for daily updates, from the most recent date, backwards.