New Australian Hatching Mystery Egg at Home

[Teloka]

Thank you so much Sumi! I'm sorry for my confusion, I just wasn't sure if perhaps because of my absence the thread had to be shut or something, I'm really sorry for not understanding that. I certainly understand about there being lots of threads, haha, I read so many while I was incubating Basil to get as much perspective on the situation that I could, but certainly not that many, hahahaha. I was just concerned this thread may have been a hassle because it was old! But if this is the space for updates, then I shall continue to do so here!

I'm glad that it's been an enjoyable thread for others, I'm so happy about that, even though my following long-silence caused some grief. But I will try to drop updates more frequently! Life is super hectic, but I don't want anybody to feel like I've abandoned them or anything like that, I honestly haven't, I've just been busy and greatly stressed, haha.

Anyway, will upload some photos now!

(ps. apologies for all the apologies, I'm one of those long-winded-mega-apologizers hahahaha )

 

[Teloka]

Okay, to cut down a little bit on how long these updates take me to do, and subsequently to try and ensure I make them more frequently by feeling less daunted by the task, I'm going to forgo my formatting efforts from my earlier posts and just sort of clump them together... I hope that's okay! The last ones I posted were from 27days old, so I'll pick up from there!



29 Days Old



Starting to get juvenile feathers coming through and subsequently loosing the baby fluff, and the sheaths for the larger wing feathers all came through this gorgeous teal blue colour!



Back shot, showing the feathers coming on the wings especially and all these fluffy bits that fell out all over the place. He was an itchy baby for a few weeks! The chest was starting to get the distinctive Australian Wood Duck mottling too by this stage, and still has it!




What an elegant fuzzy duckie!




And somewhat less elegant, hahahaehehehehee I love this shot though. Still got great big steely blue dragonclaw feet!

 

[Teloka]

32 Days Old; just over a month!
They sure grow fast!



So scruffyyyyyyyy! The beginnings of the darker head feathers coming through out of the baby-grey fuzz.




Itchy bubby always preening!




Definitely not camera shy though!

And another "in hands" comparison. I tried to take these every week until s/he seemed to reach full size and stopped growing on a weekly basis! Wood Ducks are actually a fairly small species though, coming into the 'extra small' category, so even with the "part-goose" thing going on, Basil has remained fairly portable!

 

[sumi]

Thank you so much Sumi! I'm sorry for my confusion, I just wasn't sure if perhaps because of my absence the thread had to be shut or something, I'm really sorry for not understanding that. I certainly understand about there being lots of threads, haha, I read so many while I was incubating Basil to get as much perspective on the situation that I could, but certainly not that many, hahahaha. I was just concerned this thread may have been a hassle because it was old! But if this is the space for updates, then I shall continue to do so here!

I'm glad that it's been an enjoyable thread for others, I'm so happy about that, even though my following long-silence caused some grief. But I will try to drop updates more frequently! Life is super hectic, but I don't want anybody to feel like I've abandoned them or anything like that, I honestly haven't, I've just been busy and greatly stressed, haha.

Anyway, will upload some photos now!

(ps. apologies for all the apologies, I'm one of those long-winded-mega-apologizers hahahaha )

Stop apologising!

 

[sumi]

Love the pics! (S)he's grown into quite a handsome little duck.

 

[Teloka]

34 days old

First real bath! As in, first time in water so deep he couldn't stand up in it at all.




Basil is still not fond of overly deep water (Australian Wood Ducks are grazing grass-ducks, like geese, rather than diving ducks like another local the Pacific Black) and only likes having a bath in warm, clean water where he can touch the bottom and is still frightened of our dam (also it is dirty and cold water and so he makes 'ewww mummy why' faces at me when I try to put him in it)

I did however buy him a new bowl which is square, rather than his little round one, because he outgrew the round one and could only tuck his feet up and 'float-rotate' in a sort of circle around in it!! Plus, he'd get so excited for his bath that he would spin around in such a flurry that it made a huge mess, and later as his wings started growing in and he got lift, he'd rocket himself straight out of his smaller bowl! But the first replacement bowl I tried him in was a blue colour, and oh-no, didn't like that. So I got him a NEW new one in the same yellow as his first bowl--- and that was fine.

What a fussy duckie I have raised. But I love him anyway!

 

[Teloka]

5 weeks old
Getting nearly full sized now, and not many scruffy fuzzy baby-down feathers left! The super proud stance and long fine goose-like neck make for a handsome duckie indeed!

I especially like that Aussie Wood Ducks have such small cute beaks, but it still hurts when he bites with it!





The full juvenile markings had pretty much come in by this stage. The mottled chest which is super beautiful, and of course the eye markings (below) which remain white stripes for juveniles and females.



Even now Basil still has these same white stripes, so that is indicative of a female. However his/her head seems slightly darker in colour than some other females of the same species that we have locally here, and the males have darker chestnut heads. The females have white underbellies, which Basil DOES have (Males have black) although Basil's has grey splodges and is not a snowy white like it was when he was a baby, and his wings have iridescent greeny-blue panels- which is apparently indicative of males. So it's all very confusing! I've got myself stuck saying 'he' out of habit now, but maybe he'll lay us some eggs some day and we'll know for sure (and added bonus; I can use them to make cakes, apparently fresh duck eggs are great for that!)




He blends in with our gravel pathway!




And another shot of him 'in hands' for comparison's sake, and one of us cuddlin', the temperatures got suddenly cold and Basil loves this snuggly hoodie of mine.

I've had to delegate my clothes to ones I wear when I'm going out, and ones I wear when playing with Basil, because he still doesn't have diapers and he sure can be messy and it ALWAYS seems to happen on my nice clothes, so I've learnt my lesson!!

 

[Teloka]

Okay, I have some more, but I have yet to edit them down to a upload-able size. I will try to update again in the next few days and get up-to-date to the six month mark, but I hope that this will be sufficient for now!! There hasn't been a lot of visual change to him since the most recent ones I posted above, but I have more so I'll share 'em anyway!

Sumi: Yes, s/he is so beautiful, my lovely little baby's so big now. And has lots of attitude. I should do a recording of the sounds he makes if I can upload those somehow, he's got an awesome 'alarm honk' for whenever he spots anything moving outside. It's handy when visitors turn up, because he lets us know! Not so handy when he honks at every single car that drives past though

 

[Bens-Hens]

Wow, just wow.

Love it!

 

[Fancychooklady]

Thank you teloka, for a most inspiring story. We have a family of wood chucks on our front yard, they are lovely. On youtube there is a beautiful clip featuring all kinds of creatures and the wood duck is in there too. Song perfect day by Beatrix potter performed by Miriam Stockley, the 2010 version. I think you will enjoy it.