JBtheExplorer
Native Gardener
Guess what I just found in the window well next to my pond. You don't have to guess, the answer is a duck egg!
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a hole dug in the gravel in the window well. For a split second, I thought "What the hell did that?", and in an instant later, I saw the egg sitting in the center of that hole, with a few leaves around it. To help out, I added some more leaves to the window well. It seems like eggs sitting on rocks is a disaster in the making. If this is a good egg and becomes an active nest, there will be up to 12 eggs laid over the next 12 days. This is only about a foot away from where last year's duck nest was. This one is in a better spot. Last year she laid it right under the plug for my pump, so I could only unplug it and clean it when she wasn't around. She was also in full sun last year, and I could tell she had a hard time. This year, the egg is a month and a half earlier than the first egg last year, and the window well will shade her a little more.
That's just assuming it's the same duck. We have two pairs that fight over this territory. They did last year, too.
The other female laid an egg last year, but never laid anymore and didn't care for the one she did lay. The other, as some of you remember, had a full nest and 6 hatched. I'm not sure which duck this egg is from.
Here's a couple pond shots. It's a rare sunny day.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a hole dug in the gravel in the window well. For a split second, I thought "What the hell did that?", and in an instant later, I saw the egg sitting in the center of that hole, with a few leaves around it. To help out, I added some more leaves to the window well. It seems like eggs sitting on rocks is a disaster in the making. If this is a good egg and becomes an active nest, there will be up to 12 eggs laid over the next 12 days. This is only about a foot away from where last year's duck nest was. This one is in a better spot. Last year she laid it right under the plug for my pump, so I could only unplug it and clean it when she wasn't around. She was also in full sun last year, and I could tell she had a hard time. This year, the egg is a month and a half earlier than the first egg last year, and the window well will shade her a little more.
That's just assuming it's the same duck. We have two pairs that fight over this territory. They did last year, too.
The other female laid an egg last year, but never laid anymore and didn't care for the one she did lay. The other, as some of you remember, had a full nest and 6 hatched. I'm not sure which duck this egg is from.
Here's a couple pond shots. It's a rare sunny day.
