Third Morning

Weather - Clear, 75F, SW winds 8mph

Sunrise - 5:45am

Set alarm for 4:00am again. My arrival time at the nest box is about 5:05. Her regular exit time has arrived, but she hasn’t left. That time comes and goes, still no sign of her. I wait and wait. At this point I don’t know if she has already left or if she is still in there.

I don’t think I mentioned this previously but this is a late in the season nest. The last time we were able to count the eggs in this nest there were six eggs. We had a nest check after that count but she was on the nest and didn’t leave so we don’t know if she laid additional eggs after that. Being a late clutch could mean the eggs are not fertile.

I’m beginning to think I am staring at an empty nest box and there is no sign of her returning. I give up at 7:15am

I contact Jim and it’s decided we should do a nest check. It’s just a couple days early from our scheduled check. This box is a bit difficult to check, it requires a ladder to reach the box and when the water is high the ladder only has mud as the support. Needless to say Jim did the checking. I watched from solid ground as he very slowly started to open the panel, he stopped and secured it. “She’s in there”, he says. Great news!!

They are calling for rain tomorrow. The consensus is that if it is raining hard she will probably not call them out. If it is a light rain she will (if they are ready). - I would hope she calls them out in light rain, they are ducks aren’t they?

Unknown when she left or returned to the nest box.

I stayed approximately 2 hours.