On Saturday evening, as we pulled into the driveway on our way home from a birthday party, we saw a female duck fly up and land in some flowers in front of our house. We had seen a male and female three weeks earlier on Mothers' Day, but hadn't seen them since. As soon as we saw her land and disappear into the flowers, we figured she had a nest there.
Yes, we have a duck nest in our front flowers. For those of you who haven't been to our new house, you are probably thinking, "Oh, so they must have a pond or some kind of water nearby." Well, you would be mistaken. I have no idea where the closest body of water is, even a retention pond. I know there is a swimming pool a few blocks away, but that is it. So, I continue to contemplate why in the world this duck has decided to nest here.
We have been keeping an eye on her, and she spends about 23 hours a day on her next. Every evening around 6:30pm, she leaves the nest (presumably to get some food and water) and then returns about an hour later. On Sunday night, when the mom left the nest, Steve looked and there are definitely eggs there, so we are waiting now to see if and when they hatch. We mentioned to our neighbors about our duck nest the other night, and they told us they had one a few years back. They said that the babies hatched one day, and then the next day they were gone; the mother must have taken them directly to water. So, we are hoping to catch the ducklings before they are able to slip away. I would love to get some pictures to share so I don't have to continue to use Google images (like above), but she stays pretty buried under there, so we will have to see!
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