This morning, 2 July 2007 at 8:45 a.m., nine fledgling baby Wood
Ducks followed their mother, dropping in quick succession from our
nest box down to the surface of Fawn Lake. Then the mother gathered
her young together in a tight cluster; they started swimming away and
were quickly out of sight.

Karen and I were thrilled at seeing the fledging and were chatting
happily about the experience, when five minutes later we heard the
loud calls of a Bald Eagle outside. We looked outside and saw an
immature Bald Eagle repeatedly dive bombing the new young family,
which was now about 75 feet offshore. The fledglings were scattered
loosely in a five foot circle around the female, who was ducking
underwater to try and escape the eagle?s attacks. I went out on the
deck and?acting like the protective father?yelled and waved my arms
at the eagle. Which had no apparent effect, though it finally flew
off.* We do not know if the eagle?s raid was successful at snatching
one or more of the Wood Duck babies. This was a quick educational
experience for the young Wood Ducks!

This story began in late May, after a Hooded Merganser fledged her
mixed family (that included both Wood Ducks and Hooded Mergansers)
from the same nest box?a story detailed in my 12 May 2007 Tweeters
posting. The female Wood Duck laid her eggs and began incubating.
We watched her daily activities via the infrared video camera in the
nest box.

Finally, the eggs began hatching yesterday morning, July 1, after a
34 day incubation. The mother waited patiently as the eggs gradually
cracked open and the wet-feathered young birds emerged. The mother
kept the hatchlings warm until their feathers dried out. Then the
young began exploring the nest box and poking at each other and their
mother. It was about 24 hours later that the mother began looking up
at the nest box hole and we realized that she was getting ready to
leave. We scrambled to take our video camera outside so that we
could tape the young dropping from the nest box. We were able to see
most of the young leaving, which took about two minutes.

We have been viewing the interior of this nest box for about three
months and have now seen Wood Duck and Hooded Merganser females leave
with a total of 18 young. What an experience! We?ll be watching
again next year.

Lee & Karen Rentz
Shelton, WA
lee at LeeRentz.com



*Shortly after the initial eagle incident, we heard a cacophony of
panicked ducks and geese at the end of the lake. The immature Bald
Eagle was attacking several families of Mallards and Canada Geese.
And the eagle in turn was being mobbed by one or more Red-winged
Blackbirds. It finally flew off and past us, and it may have had a
young bird in its talons.