then… Flying the Coop

Okay! Teeth done. We will be gone in April… but first we need to test our rig with bikes on back and the canoe smartly mounted on top. An ingenious design of Cork’s to get the 80-pound vessel up and down by ourselves, 9 feet above our heads and NOT using a ladder!
We think we can…

 

 

 

So off to Fish Eating Creek, an hour and half drive and a world away to springtime in the cypress bottom lands of Lake Okeechobee.  At this riverside camp we unknowingly parked our rig under a moss-draped red shouldered hawks nest with 2 large hungry chicks. The female adult was delivering meals all day long to her voracious feathered monsters. We finally figured out she was feeding them yummy wood duck ducklings!

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile back at home OUR wood duck family had 14 eggs incubating in the nesting box with the female sitting on them for 29 days straight. Time to get back home. We never miss the fledglings’ flop down to earth!

With a camera inside the nesting box giving us “Duck TV”, and live viewing on the back patio, 20 friends and neighbors gathered for the event. On April 28 eleven babies jumped down to their cooing Mom, instantly disappeared into the brush and won’t be seen for a month, but by then a few will be missing. We too have hawks, crows, snakes, snapping turtles, otters and coyotes all salivating for duckling dinner!