Nature

These little babies are just so cute that I had to post more photos. Yesterday a new family arrived, this one has 7 little ones! These babies are a wee bit smaller than the ones I have previously seen here. Aside from the geese and ducks we have also seen a lot of squirrels, birds and even a raccoon. I have put up 2 regular bird feeders, one hummingbird feeder and one squirrel feeder.

the family with 7 babies

the babies line up to eat the bread I fed them

aren't they just adorable?

a squirrel enjoys feeding on the squirrel bungee feeder

Yesterday when I checked the ducks nest I was surprised to find the mother duck had covered the eggs with down. I have been so intrigued by this process so I looked up some info on mallard ducks online to find out about the eggs. The incubation period is 28 days. Apparently the mother lays one egg a day until she has laid them all (sometimes 9 or more). She will sit on them and she covers the nest with down. I have no idea when the eggs were laid but I found them on Monday while walking around our campsite. Mother duck has been sitting on the nest each day. The first time I saw them there were 7 eggs in the nest. I noticed that little black ants were crawling on them. Later that same day one egg was missing and the ants were gone. I decided that one egg must have been cracked and the ants had come to feast on it and the mother had disposed of the egg in an effort to protect the others. Six eggs remained. Yesterday when I observed the eggs they appeared larger and not as white as the day before. Later yesterday afternoon I walked by to check on them again. I didn't see mother duck anywhere and I noticed she had completely covered the nest with sticks, pine cones and lots of down. At that point I wanted to learn more. I am still hoping the eggs will hatch before we leave here on Sunday but since she only covered the nest yesterday I am afraid she has only recently laid them and it will be closer to the end of May before they hatch. If they do hatch before we leave you can be sure I will post some photos of the newly hatched ducklings.

the ducks nest after being covered