Mother's Day Surprise

 On Mother's Day, May 14, April's eggs hatched in the morning.  Knowing that they would leave the nest within 24 hours, Gail and I were glued to the TV monitor.  When they settled in for the night under mom, we knew tomorrow would be the big day.

April leaving her nest box on the 14th to go fishing.

The morning of the 15th, and April is on the ground outside the box calling to her ducklings.  They're very excited and starting to climb out of the box. They all climbed up and out in a period of about one minute.

April is between the duck box and the river, calling to her brood.  Her call was a soft, low, croaking sound. Near the end of the video, you can see the last little duckling free falling from the duck box into the grass. This is best seen by clicking to full screen.

Since we were in the house watching the TV monitor, and there was no good place to view the fledging without the risk of disrupting this critical moment, we thought we might never see them again.  We were very lucky, though, to look down on the river from the road, about 15 minutes after fledging, and see them through all the trees and vegetation and get a telephoto picture.  They had swum about 50 yards up river and through some light rapids. 

It could be that April was the same Hooded Merganser that nested in our box last year.  Maybe we'll see her again next spring.

We were amazed how clean her nest was after about 6 weeks of habitation.  She ate the egg shells, there was no poop, and no smell.  On the left, you can see the grooves I cut into the inside of the box front to serve as a ladder for the ducklings to climb up.

We are in awe of the whole process, and learned a lot first hand.  We are very happy that all the ducks successfully fledged and are together with mom.  Although they can do short dives and find their own food, the mother will stay with them for about the next 90 days.