Seventh Morning
Weather - Clear, 70F, N winds, 0mph
Sunrise - 5:47am
I actually woke up a little before the 4:00 alarm went off - hope this doesn’t become a habit.
I get to CBEC and find the entrance road is slightly flooded in a couple areas, the tide is 1.83ft. I’m able to get through ok, but I’m concerned if I have to come back tomorrow, it will be .10 ft higher - this could become a problem for me.
On my walk to the nest box (in the dark) I only hear the eastern wood-pewee; seems the eastern towhee is sleeping in this morning….wish I was.
It’s 5:00am as I approach the blind, I hear what I think is a duck fly off from the canal to the right of me. I can’t see it since it is still dark. I’m guessing this may be my hen. I go into the blind and set up. I take a couple test shots and wait for the sun to come up. I have my finger on the shutter, then wait.
At 5:45am she flies to the nest box. So, that may have been her that I heard. This is the first morning of my stakeout she was already out of the box before I got there. She doesn’t land on the top of the box as she did before, she instead flies to the hole and hangs on. She looks around (appropriately not noticing me) and then goes in.
I’m hoping to hear something from the box, but nothing. I wait for her to come back out. Instead, a green heron lands on a branch nearby.
It’s now 6:00am and she is still in there. A red-winged blackbird lands on the same brach where the green heron was.
This seems to be a popular brach this morning. At 6:23am an eastern kingbird lands there.
At 6:45am a red-winged blackbird comes to the box. At one point I thought he may try to go inside, he was checking out the entrance.
What I do when I’m here - wait, wait and wait some more. 7:00am arrives - nothing. 8:00am arrives - nothing. I decide to pack it up at 8:45am. I know she is in there, but I do not hear anything - seems today is not the day. Patience - didn’t I mention this takes a lot of patience. My patience is being challenged. I have waited for approximately 22 hours so far and still not the pictures I am hoping for. Jim and Judy both have been supporting me in this effort - they encourage me to carry on.
Guess I’ll be setting the alarm for 4:00am and hope the entrance road is not flooded during my arrival time.
She left the nest box at - unknown, she returns at 5:45am.
I stayed approximately 3 1/2 hours.
