Admiration for Horton


And even some sympathy for Maysie, from observing a nesting mallard




Around April first, I discovered a duck nest, with eggs, in our prairie garden. While clearing brush from the garden, I had unwittingly removed the dried stalks of false blue indigo (Baptisia australis) that had covered it. I had actually been watching for such a nest, because the same thing happened in 2008, and I didn't really want to repeat my blunder, but the camouflage fooled me. I tried to replace the nest's shelter with a haphazard arrangement of plant stems, and hoped I hadn't done too much damage. I was relieved to see the mother incubating her eggs a few days later, and I've been checking on her for three weeks now.

She has been on the nest every time I've checked, usually several times each day. A few days ago I set up a spotting scope on our porch, about 25 yards away, so I could easily check on her more often. It's been a relatively mild spring, but she has nevertheless endured frost, rain and even some pea-sized hail. Day after day, she patiently sits, sometimes repositioning herself, or doing a little preening, or some rearranging of nest material, but never leaving as far I can tell.

The incubation period for mallards is about four weeks, so I expect the eggs to hatch later this week. As I understand it, the ducklings typically leave the nest within 24 hours of hatching, so we'll have to be vigilant to avoid missing them. I'll be collecting photos.

Update: At around 7:00 the morning after I wrote this item, I found the nest unoccupied. While I was peering into the nest to try to count the mostly-covered eggs (looked like at least four), a pair of mallards flew into the yard. I moved away from the nest, and by the time I was in the house the mother duck was heading over to the nest. So she actually does leave sometimes, meeting up with the presumed father.

Update 2: On the morning of 30 April, we saw ducklings at the nest. I managed to get some pictures (through the spotting scope) in which they can just barely be seen. I've added these to our Prairie Garden Duck Nest gallery on smugmug.

Posted: Sun - April 25, 2010 at 03:19 PM       by email

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