Bird Watching: Birds Nesting 2013 , 2 by Lily_love

Lily_love wrote:
Hi Margaret, lol It's the mallards indeed. Nature is wonderfully amazing; as one may recall. In the height of summer here last year. The mother Mallard went missing just a day or two before the eggs hatched. But the majority of the nearly dozen eggs hatched within 24-48 hours after the mother went missing. To make the long story short-- the majority of ducklings were safely adopted and raised by my neighbor's young family, who love nature as much as I do. Came this early spring, a new female Mallard was seen in the vicinity. Approximately March, she laid 3-4 eggs, but due to her inexperience ; the duck has chosen another flower pot which didn't have tall plants to help conceal her eggs, I noticed too, unlike the previous female mallard, the young mom didn't know how to "cover" her eggs when she leaves the nest/flower container. As a result, crows and Herons apparently promptly discovered the ducks eggs and destroyed her initial attempt. I thought; oh my, that was the end of my hope to see the sweet mallard family for this year. Well, I was wrong. For the last week, I've seen the male Mallard staying close, despite a minor flood that we've experienced in the area lake which lasted nearly a week...
Yesterday, the water finally returned to its normal level, while I was surveying the damage around the backyard (caused by the flood), I was delightfully surprised by finding the duck eggs! And wouldn't you know it. The young mother-to-be mallard, has learned to cover her eggs this time! How wonderfully amazing mother nature is!

I've captured a picture of the new Mallard momma sitting on the nest this morning. Will share picture when I can. Happy Mother Day to everyone. Happy birding as well.

Due to technical difficulty, I haven't been able to upload new pics. into the pc for the last month.... I've been busy, and didn't have the problem resolved. But here are a couple pics from April.

1. Mallards in the area before the flood.
2. The new Mallard nesting pot is to the very left; where I've moved a semi-weeping myrtle tree (in the white container) to partially hide the duck nest. (Oh needless to say, my beloved Jelly Bean--the gardener helper is beeing kept in the house with a close supervision while outside at present).