Thursday, May 25, 2017

Counting Ducks

Responsibilities pulled me out of my lazy funk and forced me outside on the second of a rainy/misty/coolish day in my neck of the woods. We had to go out and count the eggs or hatched eggs in the wood duck boxes in the marsh. I say "we" in an extremely generous way because my roll is sometimes to carry a few things and other times to document with photos, and to give my lady friend company. When we head to the state park the greens are still very vital as the rains have washed all things clean.



The beavers have returned with an industrious vengeance. Park rangers have tried various methods to keep the dam lower so that the boardwalk at the edge of the swamp is not flooded.  You can see an older cut tree in the lower right hand corner.



Counting crew had to wade carefully across the lower part of the creek in the overflow of the dam.  Three of the boxes are across the marsh on the other side.




Mountain laurel were on the wane in their blossoms, but I got a few photos for remembrance. It is hard to time their bloom as it varies as much as two/three weeks sometimes.   The marsh was pulsing with life:  birds, water lilies, duck potato of the Sagittaria family, pennywort, and turtles.  Redwings were noisy and busy.


Blue flag was showing off it striking purples and blues as was the variegated iris.



It was mystical and while not quiet due to the birds and frogs celebrating spring, it was still very spiritual.  Very few humans had invaded on this early and cool morning.


Ferns carpeted shallow areas everywhere.  We followed the two major trails to investigate 18 boxes with a total of 93 eggs laid and 20 already hatched!  We considered that a good count and only frightened two sitting hens...or guess I should write that our counters were only frightened by two sitting hens.

At the end, we walked to the beach side just for the fun of it and discovered the leftovers from children looking for shark's teeth in the sand the prior weekend.


10 comments:

  1. Very pretty area. Love the soft looking fern carpet. Good on you for your work with the wood ducks and the box nests.

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  2. Thank you for doing this. Thank you for the pictures of your lush landscape. The tall grasses from our heavy rains are turning golden brown. Backcountry fires have begun. I really appreciate your beaver dams.

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  3. So glad you have such lush areas being preserved near you.

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  4. Such a great project, Tabor. Thank you for sharing! Such a beautiful area!

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  5. That's a very nice thing to do. Beautiful pictures

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  6. What a wonderful wildlife experience!

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  7. With everything to entertain you on your way to the boxes, I am surprised you remembered to count eggs. Fascinating journey:-)

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  8. yes, a beautiful area and lovely photos. I'm surprised the ducks nest in those boxes.

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  9. That stuff looks like fun to me. Spoiled ducks to have nest boxes made for them!

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  10. Different from England, we have nature reserves where all our water birds visit and make themselves at home, but then we are a small country. It is heartwarming to think that all over the world people care for their wildlife on their doorstep.

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Glad to hear from you once again. I really like these visits. Come sit on this log and tell me what you are thinking.