On May 22, a kind woman called very upset. She had been watching a mallard hen build a nest in a vacant lot near her. Mom had been sitting on the nest for about 3 weeks.
Then the lot owner/caretaker came to mow the lawn. Jacqui cautioned about the nest and the mom she had been watching. The lot was mowed anyway. Mom abandoned as a result. We waited nest 24 hours before she called.
We told her we’d do our best, but not knowing the exact stage of sitting and how cold they got, we couldn’t promise anything.
She & her husband drove the nine eggs an hour to us. We tried candling them, but the development was too far to say for certain. It was just a waiting game at that point.
Until May 29th, when the hatching began!
As of now, two finished hatching yesterday, two more are mostly hatched and all others are in various stages.
We can learn to live with our wild neighbors. Putting off mowing just a few days would have kept this family together. Thanks to Jacqui this story has a happy ending but they don’t always.