[mou] Duck in Owl's Nest?

[Farrel Graves]

Maybe someone on the network could help me with this. My wife and I
monitored a Great Horned Owl on a nest near the Cedar Ave. bridge in
February, March and April. Someone told us she would try more than once if
the first eggs didn't hatch, explaining the long duration of nesting. Then
one day without ever seeing any indication of babies, the nest was just
abandoned. We go into that area fairly often, maybe a hundred to two hundred
feet off the road on the bike path and watch lots of birds. I always check
the nest just out of curiosity. Yesterday around 5 PM, in my 8x42
binoculars, I could see a hump in the nest. Switched to my spotting scope
and was convinced it was a head and thought we could see it move. Of course
hoping for an Owlet. I carry my Meade ETX 90 astronomy scope and tri pod in
the car. At 78 x, we could clearly see the hump. It was a Mallard hen
sitting on the nest. It's pretty high up in the tree. Is this unusual
behavior? My wife and I haven't been biding that long but didn't expect
this.




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