Eleventh Morning
Weather - Cloudy, 73F, NW winds 12mph
Humidity - 89%
Sunrise - 5:49am
Another 4:00am wakeup. The water on the road to CBEC was a little high this morning, but not as bad as a couple days ago and I was able to drive through it. The walk to the nest box was pretty quiet, no birds singing. Then I heard the call of a great blue heron to the right of me from the lake. Their call is a little scary, not the most pleasant call. I heard a second one, on the left. I got to the nest box at 5:15am.
At 5:34am..
I went through my routine of setting up the camera and as usual started taking a couple of single frame shots with the shutter open longer to let the light in, considering it was still dark. I have the camera back open so I can see the picture as soon as the exposure is done. I take another shot, wait for the exposure and the picture emerges - there she is at the hole. I then look at the nest box and she’s not there. That was very strange. I hit the shutter just at the right time.
Now I start waiting. A blue grosbeak comes to my tree to sing, the first time during this nest box stakeout that I hear one. I took a moment to record his song. You can also hear an eastern kingbird, red-winged blackbirds and a common yellowthroat.
I continue to wait, then at 6:49am she returns to the nest box.
This is discouraging. I was hoping to hear her calling from the canal. As I think I have mentioned, the last time we were able to check into the nest she had six eggs. We were basing the estimated hatch date on the assumption that was the full clutch, and that she began incubation. So what if that wasn’t the full clutch and she laid additional eggs? If you recall at the intro to this blog I mentioned the incubation is between 25-37 days, averaging 30 days. Not knowing how many eggs there are makes it difficult to estimate, but it would definitely be later than we originally expected.
I ponder this, but continue to wait, wait, and wait some more. I notice a pair of eastern kingbirds at the top of the song sparrow evergreen. They are not chasing each other, they appear to be a pair. I’m a little surprised by this, not expecting to see a breeding pair this late in the breeding season (it’s on the late side of the curve, just like my wood duck).
I continue to wait…..
Then a bit later an explanation for the pair of eastern kingbirds is then apparent….
….they have fledglings.
As you can see, they are just beyond the nest box. I figure at this point the wood duck is probably not coming back out so I turn my attention and camera to this eastern kingbird family.
Sitting in this blind allowed me to witness this family time. They were fed and then they preened and stretched, then they were fed again. This went on for about an hour and a half. I think there were three fledglings (the other one was in a different tree most of the time).
Needless to say momma wood duck did not leave. I gave up at 8:45am. At least I got some good eastern kingbird pictures. That was enjoyable to witness. I will add these and additional pictures I took to the eastern kingbird categories section of this website.
She left the nest box at 5:34am and returned at 6:49am.
I stayed approximately 3 1/2 hours.
