Duck camouflage nest

Every year the dog seems to stumble on a duck nest way out in the woods. Last week he found this one. (I will repeat the picture to start the thread)

Do you see the eggs?

I do have more recent pictures to share.

The nest did not look finished and we were concerned when it appeared that she did not return to the nest that day.

A couple days later, I cked the nest and there was much down feathers and leaves and the eggs seemed covered giving me hope that she was now sitting on the nest.

This weekend I went out and saw her sitting on the nest with a leaf covering her head. I did not have the camera, but it would have been a great picture of her hiding.

So yesterday, I went out with the camera and this is what I got.

Far shot of nest. (nest is under this hemlock tree)

I only dared to get about 18 feet from her.
These are zoomed pictures. See if you can spot her back feathers and beady little eye watching me. You can also see her bill.

Here is another.
As you can see, you would walk on her without knowing she was there.

Wonderful pics cparts! She is well hidden; thanks for sharing these w/ us!

Hope all goes well for her.

Last one.

I need to ck on her later today. We saw coyottes in the woods yesterday, not far from her nest.

We have seen many duck nests that were raided and sometimes the duck gets killed too. I will keep you all updated.

I will wait until later in the day when it gets warmer, in case I spook her off the nest, then the eggs will be ok. Keep your fingers crossed.

Thanks Pell. Glad you could see her.
She had 8 eggs in the first picture. She may have laid more.

These are great pictures! I hope she does well with her family. I'm glad your dog didn't eat the eggs! I didn't know they would nest in the woods like that. I will have to keep an eye out now! Although she is hard to spot.
Claire

Ha, the dog didn't care. He was just surprised to have her fly up like that. I think it scared him.

There are sure many things in the woods that will eat the eggs though. We have raccoon, mink, possum, skunk, and bobcat and coyotte to eat the duck. If the little guys make it to hatch, they then have to make it to the water where the northern pike and large snapping turtles are waiting. It is a tough life out in the wild. It is amazing that any make it at all.

Ok, she is alright. Now I will leave her alone for a while. Will update pictures in a few days.

Taken at 1pm today.

cpart - those are incredible pictures. I can't wait until you post more pictures. I'll keep my fingers crossed, too.

Thanks.
Found a turkey nest a couple times too, but you have to trip over them. They are so hard to see.

She has definately learned the art of hiding. Great shots!

Great pics cparts, it's exciting to have found a nest like that! Is it a Wood Duck? She does look well camouflaged, keeping fingers crossed, you do have a lot of predators.

I got some very interesting pics last night of some Mallards, I will probably start a thread for it later.

It is a mallard.

The wood ducks make their nest in hollow trees. The fly full speed right into the hole. Then when the chicks hatch, they fall from the hole, sometimes 30 feet to the ground, before their long walk to the water.
I know where there are wood ducks nesting, but not a very interesting picture of a hole in a tree. Ha.

Yes, she will be lucky if the chicks make it to hatch. Most nests get raided before hatching.

I am hoping to get a picture of the nest covered, when she leaves to eat. It has a blanket of down and leaves. Very cozy looking.

Yesterday I walked over to ck the nest. I see about 20 feet from the nest an egg with a hole in the side.

Viewing the nest, it seems to have been dug up. Clumps of the downy fleathers with dirt and a big hole where the nest was. No eggs at all.

So I am thinking the nest was raided.

I have seen turkey nests after the hatch. The egg shells are left in the nest with any unhatched eggs and just left. Same with goose nests. Seems our ducks do not have as good luck. (or at least the ones in the middle of the woods)

I suppose it is possible the nest was raided after the hatch. But I am thinking that is not the case. I was really bummed about it yesterday.
But it is part of living in the wild. Some other family of animal benifited from this loss.

Oh no, that's really sad. I'm sorry to hear about it. As you say, it's nature, but it's difficult to see sometimes. Hopefully the duck will have more success next time. I hope she made it through the raid.

That's sad news cpart. It is a miracle any babies hatch, and make it to adulthood. I'm sorry you had to witness it.

Sorry to hear tha cpart!

So sorry cpart.

Thanks for the kind words.
We went to a family dinner yesterday and we were telling about the ducks nests we find and how they are frequently raided.

My BIL said that he thought that the young duck mothers were the ones that built nests back in the woods. (young and inexperienced) and that the older smarter ducks build by the water.
This may be the case. The young duck feels safer in the woods, not knowing it is actually more dangerous out there.

Showed my hubby the nest yesterday. We found only the one egg, so the others must have been hauled off. He said it looked like raccoon maybe, but it is hard to tell.