Some of you have been following our wood duck house story. In late February, my husband built a wood duck house and set it up near the bayou. We put a Ring doorbell camera inside to capture the whole process. We were amazed when a hen came in the very next day. It took her a few weeks to lay the eggs and begin sitting on them. I wrote about it here and here.
The last time I was able to count the eggs, I had counted 13 eggs.
The problem with using a Ring camera is, with the constant motion of a hen sitting fairly consistently, the battery runs down. We changed it out once with no problem, but Saturday afternoon, it had totally died. Because we couldn’t look at the camera to see if the hen was in the house, my husband spooked her when he went to change the battery.
She came back for a brief minute then flew back out at around 7:30 PM. After that, nothing.
Did she abandon the nest altogether? Alerts to motion come onto my phone. I usually turn off notifications during the night but I didn’t Saturday. We waited for the buzz of the phone. Nothing.
Sunday morning I looked out the window, saying a few prayers that she would return. I saw the couple in the water. I practically begged at the window, “Please go back in. Please go back in.”
She flew up and around the house and landed back in the water.
I woke up my husband who admits he wasn’t really sleeping. I said, “There must be some kind of sound coming from the camera to scare her like that.”
He said, “To hell with broadcasting, we need to save these eggs.”
But taking the camera out didn’t prove necessary. I heard a buzz on my phone. She’s back! She was in the box, settling in, poking around, as if nothing had happened. Whew! Relief!
Jeff watched one of the videos from the camera and noticed that there was a hen perched at the hole flying out while another hen was in the box sitting. Could they both be sitting? Are they sharing the nest?
While our hen was away, I was able to get a shot of the eggs. She hadn’t had time to cover them before she left. I counted 20 eggs! Twenty!
If my calculations are right, and the 12 hour hiatus doesn’t change the incubation time, the eggs are due to hatch on or around April 11th. You know I will be posting. You can follow on my Instagram or Facebook page.
Now for poetry. I am playing with some fun poetry games. My students are playing along and posting on our Kidblog site.
With Paint Chip Poetry, I pulled honey, quicksilver, and under the sea. The prompt was “We’re all in this together.”
We’re all wild honey
Margaret Simon (draft, 2019)
under the sea
free and quick
like silver sparkles
together
making waves
splashing
sprays
whale family.
Reflections on the Teche 
So happy to hear that the duck families are ok, 20 eggs!!! Yikes! This is going to get interesting! I mean MORE interesting as those ducklings star to appear. How will this get managed, I wonder.
Genius of a poem with those words and prompt!
Yayyy! So glad to hear the update!
Wow. Multiple occupancy dwelling. Job sharing. Exciting times!
Liked the duck update and the poetry, too. Not easy to weave all those ideas together.
Glad those ducks returned, but 20 eggs, so looking forward to what happens, Margaret. The words for your poem come together beautifully, a memory at the sea. Lovely!
I was holding my breath… so glad “mama” returned. Sounds like things are continue to get more exciting around your place. We had a pair of ducks land in the “pond” formed on the winter cover of my son’s pool this afternoon. Very interesting. I’m sure they are just passing through… but what a feast they seemed to be enjoying. Lovely paint chip poem.
Oh, I can just see that whale family bobbing up and down joyfully in the waves. So lovely, Margaret! I’m using paint chips from Home Depot, but I’ll have to check out your Paint Chip Poetry kit.
The poetry kit is full of so many paint chips and they are small enough for my little ones to handle. It comes with prompts, too, that you can use or not. Today, I asked my students to choose the same color scheme to write a tanka, inspired by you.
I was holding my breath about those ducks – so understanding that concern, having lived it myself with the finches living on my door- nerve-wracking! I keep reminding myself they know what they’re doing and are hardier than I am (in spite of their seeming frailty). I cannot wait to see these ducklings.
And the paint chip poem is absolutely enchanting.
Love reading the paint chip poems. Looking forward to trying one sometime this month. Maybe a poem of blue to introduce our new grandson (when he decides to come). And the duck update, you had me worried. Glad she’s (they) are back on the nest.
I like the honey under the sea. And those wood duck eggs. Amazing.