These photos are absolute crap, and I apologize – they would have been discarded (or indeed, never taken at all) if it weren’t for what they show. But shooting at an oblique angle through double-pane glass will do that, though I had no other options. I consider myself lucky to have witnessed this, as brief as it was, and this was actually the second time – the first occurred when I didn’t have the camera in hand.
A few days back now, The Girlfriend and I noticed that a pair of the wood ducks were quite close to the new nest box, and appeared to be eyeing it speculatively.
This was some fifty meters distant, and I knew if I ventured outside at all I’d spook them off – there was no place where I could observe without being seen, and wood ducks have damn good eyesight.
But we didn’t have to wait long.
Without further preamble, the female launched herself at the opening, and I was ready.
While the first image is a few seconds before the rest, the remaining five were all on the three-frames-per-second rate of the 7D, taking place over less than two seconds (the 7D has a high-speed, eight FPS mode but I rarely use it and if I’d thought to switch it here, i might never have gotten the action.)
Both times that I witnessed this it was the same: the female did not enter the box but hesitated at the opening for the barest moment, just enough to see inside and nothing more. The first time, I thought she might have had trouble gaining a purchase, though wood ducks have sharp toenails on their webbed feet for exactly this reason, and the nest box was built to specifications.
According to the lore, wood ducks often take over abandoned nest cavities of woodpeckers, presumably the larger ones like the pileated since the openings of the others are likely too small, so perhaps they routinely do a quick check to ensure that the spot is unoccupied. My preparation for the cavity was only to put in a bed of Spanish moss, since I figured they’d like that better than the suggested wood chips, and there’s plenty of it around.
And like before, after this ever-so-brief inspection, the two moved on without further concern. So now of course I’m wondering: Did it not pass muster? Is this typical, and they’ll be back? We have not, to appearances, entered mating season for the wood ducks, though I can’t be sure about that since they’ve been routinely paired since we first started seeing them. The mating season for the mallards seemed pretty obvious, though brief, and since that time it looks like only a single pair has been visiting (though they recognize when we’re putting out food and draw closer with only token discretion.) This is our first time observing wood ducks so we’re out of our element, and can only continue to observe and see what happens. But we’re remaining optimistic.