I am always out looking at birds in trees. One morning, my girls were out walking the dogs when they found a fallen tree. There had been a storm a couple of days before and this big old tree had fallen through a fence and had broken its limbs out everywhere. The girls raced home to tell me, they know me too well!
We went to check it out and found eggs! They had fallen into a deep pit and we could see them through a small hollow opening. They were too far from reach, so we headed home to make something to try to get them out.
We made a scoop using a soup ladle and attached it to a long pole. It was a tricky process and took some fiddling and a couple of drops (oh dear) as we pulled each one delicately through the small hollow. We managed to get all seven of the eggs. They were the size of a chook egg.
They were cold, freezing cold. My husband believed that they had been left for too long to be saved.
Pleading kids encouraged me to try... so after a bit of google research and getting a lend of an incubator from a kind neighbour, we watched with anticipation and excitement. We did not really know what would happen.. They started to rock a bit in the incubator. That was a good sign. The girls would set camera's time lapse on my phone and watch it over when they would wake or get home from school. There began to be more and more movement quite quickly,.
After only 6 days our eggs started hatching. The patter of feet racing out in the mornings to check the incubator was priceless. My girls faces showed thrill and so much joy.
All seven of the eggs hatched and now we are parents to 7 wood ducks. (oh dear)
We will keep them protected, loved, sheltered and well fed until they are strong enough to head back to the wild.
Like children -they are growing so fast.
In the meantime, we have had a ball, a memorable time cherished for our family.
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