_How Wild Ducks Conceal Their Nests._
Possibly there is none of our birds that can conceal its nest better
than the wild duck. This may be due to the fact that she has to be
father and mother both.
In the first place she selects a spot where the foliage, dry sticks or
weeds, are exactly the same color as herself. I once found a black
duck’s nest right beside an oak stump that was charred black by being
partly burned away, and really if you weren’t careful you might look at
her all day and not see her, as she was exactly the same color.
Yes, I know there are a lot of people who will say “Oh, that just
happened that way.” I tell you right here it did not happen that way.
This is a gift to help these creatures out, and there is no man on earth
can conceal anything better than a wild duck can her nest. An
intelligent man once asked me how I hid when I hunted wild geese. I told
him I covered myself with a blanket, and in a few weeks I saw him
returning from a hunt carrying a red horse blanket.
After the duck has the spot selected she gathers a few twigs and so
forth, but she lays the eggs right on the bare ground, going to her nest
late at night and leaving long before the stars disappear in the
morning. As soon as the crows start scouring the country, she flies back
to the vicinity of her nest. I have seen a duck give a crow an aerial
battle three or four times a day. But of course two crows are one too
many for her.
From the time she starts laying, she covers the eggs very carefully with
grass and sticks before she leaves the nest, therefore they are
absolutely out of sight and protected from a slight frost, such as we
sometimes have after the wild ducks have started laying. When the eight
to twelve eggs are laid she pulls down off her breast and covers them.
Now comes the question, how can she pack these eggs in that down, and
cover them with sticks and grass, and not leave a sign of down to
indicate that there is a duck’s nest within a mile? This is certainly a
piece of shrewd work.
[Illustration:
PUZZLE: FIND THE DUCK’S NEST]
[Illustration:
WHERE THE DUCK’S NEST WAS]
Wild ducks seldom ever leave their nests in the daytime after they start
to set. I often go back to the north pond and watch them come home to
feed, just at dusk, and they are usually there at twilight in the
morning. This compels me to believe they sometimes stay off all night.
However I found this duck’s nest, and one extremely hot day I saw her in
the pond, so I slipped away with the kodak and got the two photographs.
The lower one shows you where the nest is, but I doubt if you could
locate it in the top picture. After I took one, I removed the down and
got the lower photograph, which of course reveals the mystery. The down
keeps the eggs warm until the old lady returns; you see the heat of her
body gets the ground good and warm; then she packs the down carefully
and firmly around the eggs, which holds the warmth there. She then puts
the thatch of grass and sticks over the down and all is O.K., for she
can stay away twenty-four hours if she sees fit.
[Illustration:
DUCK, WITH YOUNG, CROSSING THE FIELD]
Yes, we human beings invented a great thing when we produced the thermos
bottle, but to the fowls of the air the invention is as old and as new
as this beautiful earth.
Then when the young are hatched and old enough to catch insects, the
mother starts off with her little sweethearts toddling after her in
single file towards home, where she knows she will be helped in raising
her family.
Her feathers are slightly ruffled, but this is a wild duck’s way when
caring for its young. To me it is a beautiful sight, knowing she is on
her way to the park where she will receive food and protection in time
of need.