While photographing birds at a nearby National Wildlife Refuge Tuesday afternoon I was able to get these photos and a video of the hen and juveniles (my count was 14). There is a nest box out of view behind the cattails.

They were feeding close to shore, but quickly disappeared into the cattails when a Great Blue Heron flew over the pond. My session lasted about 3 minutes.

Jonathan











VIDEO

https://flic.kr/p/28u9rod

Fine capture Jonathan. Hope they all survive until season.

Cool, I’ve started to see a few mottled ducks and black bellied whistling ducks with chicks this past week as well. Those are our only non migrants here, i really hope that most of the mottled ducks have hatched otherwise it’s going to be a tough year for them. Most of the Texas coast around me down here got about a foot of rain this past week and all the mottled duck areas are way under water

Great pictures as always Jonathan. Mother duck was right to fear a Blue Heron, they are death on little ducks (chipmunks, mice, small muskrats and young mink too)

Comparing their size to the hen, how many days old would you guess these to be? They are not newly fledged yellowish colored puff balls. Perhaps at their age/size they may not be as vulnerable to predation given their increased mobility and being able to follow the hen quicker to cover.

Jonathan

I was thinking the same thing, those are already getting close to a month old I would say, pretty big. The ones I saw the other day were tiny and still a lot of yellow

Beautiful bird… they're the native brook trout of the bird world.

Coop, Yes they are!

Jonathan

Wood ducks look awesome

Beautiful Shot Jonathan!!!

if god showed up on my doorstep and said he was taking all but one critter that lives on the property,my choice would be my woodies.

My three wood duck houses have put more than 350 little ones on the water over the years. One has has 2 broods almost every year.

Snapping turtles and owls are heck on the little ones, tho.

The young look to be CLASS 2 A which are about 28-32 days old about 10 days from fledging