GoldenPond, Yep, your on the right tract. I don't let my ducks out untill 8:30-9:00am, and their eggs are layed. Sounds like we have the same set-up. Sometimes they decide to stay out all night(naughty little kids) and I hear the girls 1/2 to an hour after sunrise laying their eggs under my bedroom window. That makes up for staying out all night because......We LOVE Those Eggs!!!!!!!

I just quietly apologize for disturbing her and wait and try again later when she's out feeding. Those Tree Swallow mothers are quite brave to stay sitting on the nest during a nest check. I try to be the least disruptive as possible. If she's busy brooding, just slowly close the box and try again later.

I had the same problem with cats jumping the fence and laying under the shrubs and killing the birds in my back yard under the feeders. I got so fed up that I called the humane society and they loaned me a cage for 10 days at a time. Last summer I trapped 3 possums - 11 cats and so far this year 3 cats. They even come and pick up the cats. They have a website and put the cats up for adoption. I have some neighbours who dont like it but too dang bad. There is a bylaw that says cats are to be on a leash - caged outside or kept inside. One neighbour who has since moved away.....even threatened me while the truck was here to pick up his cat. They were told to pay $90 to retreive the cat.....they didnt as it was put up for adoption. His cat was never inside anyways and was sorta wild. That cat even would get on the hood of my car and peeeee on my windshield. I saw yellow on my windshild and figured out what it was. He sprayed everywhere...ewwwwwwwwww. When I turned on the fan in my car the smell was so nasty. I had to take the car to the car wash serveral times because of that. I have 3 or 4 new cats in the area again...stocking my birds. They even sit on edge of goldfish pond as well trying to catch a fish. Good luck and yes the water gun for kids work good. I have one that sprays 25 feet and cats hate the water. Russ

Just to let you know....mama duck doesn't count. We had seen a frantic mama duck fretting over a grating. With the help of neighbors, we pulled the grating off and started to rescue the ducklings. Mama hung around until we got 4 of them out, and then started to march her way to the creek - Of course, there were 6 more ducklings, but no mama in sight. We ended up taking an hours drive to a wildlife rescue organization, because in researching, we found that if we placed the ducklings with other newborn ducklings (we have quite a few ponds/creeks around with duck families), the newcomers might be attacked and killed. So...the moral of the story is - rescue and restrain the ducklings in one place until you're sure you have all of them. Then let mama march them off to safety. Helene