Hope you see eggs soon Don! I spotted several egg strands on Thursday March 24 so not the earliest year and not the latest year for sure! But Friday night despite freezing temps, wind and icy rain they were laying eggs again. I have about a dozen clumps of eggs. This year a few more showed up on the east shore but most are SE corner like usual. They are using clumps of strange neon FA and leaves to drape their eggs around and under. I guess since I don't have sticks in this feels like structure to them. Some are draped over a bed of oak leaves in the shallow which is their usual spot.


Today I also took time to make a mallard straw tube nest device. The day after ice out the usual mallard pair showed up. The female is gone and the male stays circling in the pond. I hope she didn't make a nest in the adjacent woods already. The critters often raid the nests when they are under a pine tree etc. I had some welded wire so followed youtube instructions and made a mallard tube. I mounted it to a 2x4 and made a square-ish hole in the middle of the 2x4 and used my wolmanized 2x2 garden stakes to come up through that square hole to act as a mounting post. The orientation I guess is cross wise to any prevailing winds so wind can't blow down the barrel of the tube and about 3-4' off the water. I guess they lay eggs over a few days or a week or more so hopefully if they started a nest they might still find my straw tube attractive?

I may have to try to add PVC around the wood stake as a predator deterrant? Not sure as come to think of it the various videos I watched all make their posts out of steel.

Many said it might take a year for the tubes to be accepted and used by the ducks. Some tubes had 2 female sharing the tube for a double clutch of eggs. Some had an early and late comer using the tube over a longer time frame. All users found a much higher hatch and nearly 100% survival rate of the ducklings in the tubes compared to in 'nature' due to better protection.

I'll keep you posted!