Drying up the front yard

[AndyM]

<font color="blue"> I love it when a plan comes together! </font>

Well, I've got the rest of the gravel spread. 52 tons sure doesn't go very far!

While spreading gravel around the willow tree, a female duck flew out of the tree, and the dog took off after it! Other than straying a few feet over the property line, that's the first time she's really ever left the yard. The duck was only flying a couple of feet off the ground and Allie continued running down the road after it! Fortunately, she stopped chasing it when she got down to the corner!

Upon further investigation, I found why there was a duck in the forks of the tree. (see attached picture)

Since there's no more water around the willow tree anymore, have I done any harm to these potential baby ducks that will soon hatch? By filling in my "swamp", it seems I have destroyed their future habitat. I haven't touched the eggs or the nest, so is there anything at all that needs to be done for them? Fortunately, the mama duck has returned to the nest after I finished spreading my gravel, so I don't think she's been scared off.

 

[AndyM]

...gravel has all been spread out. I'll start on the dirt some time next week...

 

[Junkman]

I don't think that the habitat destruction will effect them to any great amount. She will find water for them somewhere else. You might want to bury a kiddie pool for them in the gravel and let the top soil work be left for later on. Mom would appreciate that. You can watch them grow up and have a lot of interesting pictures to post. Just don't put any of those rubber duckies in the water... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[AndyM]

<font color="blue"> I don't think that the habitat destruction will effect them to any great amount. She will find water for them somewhere else. You might want to bury a kiddie pool for them in the gravel and let the top soil work be left for later on. Mom would appreciate that. You can watch them grow up and have a lot of interesting pictures to post. Just don't put any of those rubber duckies in the water... </font>

Thanks. I already thought of putting a kiddie pool at the base of the tree. Would I need to bury it, or is setting it under the tree good enough?

She's out there now, sitting on her eggs. My worry was that her nest is in the tree two or three feet off the ground. Her babies will have to get pretty big before they can get out of the tree, I would think.

The lot directly across the road is flooded out pretty good, so they won't have any trouble finding a place to swim. I just worry about a convoy of little ducks trying to safely cross the street. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Here's a picture I took of them on March 11 (the female has her head under the water). Do ducks mate for life? I was wondering if those were the same two ducks that were under the tree last year, or if they find new partners and new nesting spots each year?

 

[Junkman]

I would dig out a depression, so the ducks don't have to jump too high. Once they are out of the nest, I don't know if they return to it to rest or they just stay on the ground until they can fly. They are fun to watch.

 

[Nasty135]

Andy, I'm surprised those ducks put their nest up in that tree, The ducks around our pond usually come up near the house and build a nest behind a bush on the ground! It is neat to watch the egg count grow daily one a day up 12 or 13 ! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif Then when she's done laying she'll sit on them. When they start hatching its all over with in a 24 hr. period and if they sense a dead egg during the sitting part they kick it out of the nest. By the third day their all gone down to the pond ,What a sight to see them tripping over the high grass running behind momma to keep up ,finally hit the water floating like they know what their doing,when they fall too far behind momma they actually can run across the top of the water just to catch up! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
Hope this is not too far off subject ! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
But your grading job for your water problem should work like a champ ,Good looking job! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[AndyM]

<font color="blue"> Then when she's done laying she'll sit on them. When they start hatching its all over with in a 24 hr. period and if they sense a dead egg during the sitting part they kick it out of the nest. By the third day their all gone down to the pond </font>

Well, we missed it! /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
I went to check it this afternoon, and the eggs were all hatched and there are no ducks. The wooded area across the road is sitting about a foot deep in water, and there's lots of ducks over there. I'm going to head over tomorrow and see if I can see any baby ducks over there! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif


By the way, things are still dry after I spread out the gravel a few weeks ago. I held off putting the dirt over the gravel until the ducks were gone, so I'll get back to that as I get time /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif. I'll then plant grass, and post photos of the finished project.

Anyhoo, I'm disappointed I missed seeing the baby ducks. I worked too many hours the past couple days and didn't get to check on them for two or three days.

 

[Darren]

I guess you've learned that moderate heights aren't a problem for baby ducks. We use chickens in a nest box a bit less than 3' off the ground to hatch duck eggs. The ducklings stay in the box about two days before bailing out with the mother, or so they think. The drop never bothers them.

 

[Inspector507]

I got to see it "in progress" but will really like to see the finished product. Also I got to wreck the new flower beds in front of the house playing with the dog that's shown under Andy's name /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I did ask about the duck eggs, but they had hatched and left the nest before we got there /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
Nice seeing you Andy /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[AndyM]

I got tied up at work the past few months and never had the time to work on any projects I wanted to do this year.
As an update, here's what things looked like at the beginning of the thread...

My next door neighbor has given me lots of great topsoil, but it has a lot of bricks, rocks, and even a couple of concrete blocks mixed in with the topsoil. The price was right though! I'll have to add a decent "top coat" of topsoil to what he dumped there before I plant grass in the spring.
Here's the "semi-finished" product...

Believe it or not, the ground is now two feet higher at the lowest point. It's come a long way, but there's still a bit to finish in the spring. Considering all the rain we've had the past few days, I think it turned out pretty good!