Make Way For More Downtown Ducklings

Patch is coming at you soon with a bunch of outdoors activities (and don't forget that Earth Day is Sunday, April 22). The wood ducks have a head start.

Walnut Creek wood duck zealot Brian Murphy sent along these pictures of a wood box in the San Ramon Creek ravine in the Creekside area. He expects the ducklings will hatch in mid-May within a stone's throw of traffic clipping along at 70 mph on the Interstate 680 overcrossing.

"Clean the box and add fresh wood shavings —  they might produce a 2nd clutch!" wrote Murphy in an email.

In one photo, the hen is absent. "She’s out feeding and has 4-6 more days of laying eggs before she begins incubation of all the eggs. Wood ducks lay one egg a day until they have a clutch of 12 to 14 eggs, then start incubation so they all hatch at the same time."

The wooden boxes are made by Boy Scouts. The program is called Just For Ducks, out of the Mount Diablo Audubon Society.