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West nest: If you’ve been watching the cameras you’ve seen the hooded merganser in the west nest box all night and most of the day. She has definitely claimed that nest! We will have a good close up, side-view of that family when they hatch. She has 8 merganser eggs and 8 wood duck eggs.

This is the first time a merganser has used this nest box; previously that has happened only in the south nest. When I checked the eggs on Sunday evening they were cool even though she had spent the night, but now that she’s been there 22 hours per day for a couple of days that counts as the start of incubation. Going out 30 days from 2 days ago, they’ll hatch somewhere around June 4th but see just below about the accuracy of that guess.

East nest: The wood duck in the East nest box continues to incubate with an estimated hatching day of May 18th. I’ve misstated the egg count there are couple of times in previous posts. She has 12 wood duck eggs and 2 hooded merganser eggs.

Incubation time: Both mergansers and wood ducks have the same incubation time, which is why it works when they create mixed duckling families as is the case in both nest boxes this year. Incubation can be as short as 28 days and as long as 35, so there’s plenty of room for variation.

Outside camera: I have reactivated the outside camera that shows the East nest box and the creek. A couple of people said they liked it, so it’s on again.

Cameras: Go to my web site, birdsgv.com, and touch/click the “Live Cameras” button.

South nest: still has just one or two very short visits on most days. It may not be used this year.

Hatching and Jump day: As you’ll know if you’ve watched here in other springtimes I can provide a much better short term forecast of when they will hatch and jump. As the estimated hatching date approaches I try to always catch the time when the duck is away for a while (getting food for herself) so that I can open the nest box. When the eggs are pipped (slightly broken) they will hatch about 24 hours after that. Then the ducklings spend one night in the nest box and they leave (forever) by jumping out of the nest the morning after hatching. People sometimes ask if it bothers the duck when I open the nest box and pick up or even remove the eggs to count them or check them: No, it doesn’t. Other ducks come in sometimes and move the eggs around (a lot sometimes) when the nesting duck is away, so that is normal. Ducks neither have much sense of smell nor do they use that to detect disturbances. So as long as the duck is away when I do it they don’t know I’ve done anything.

There’s been a lot of activity in the west nest in the last couple of days and a merganser has been in this nest box all morning today. As I mentioned in my last post, the merganser has been laying eggs every other day or so. Wood ducks have also been coming into the west nest to leave eggs. This morning two wood ducks visited for about 15 minutes each, and then the merganser arrived and stayed for hours, from about 8:45 until now; that is, she’s in there right now as I start to write this at 12:20, but she’s now covering up the eggs which means she’ll be gone (for a while or a day or two?) when you see this post … and that just happened; she’s gone. I’m going to go out and get a count … … it’s 5 wood duck and 6 merganser eggs.

I hope the merganser will claim the west nest. We’ve had a merganser family here many times in the past, but only in the south nest box. The west nest box is special: I built it to allow a camera to look in from the side rather than down from the top and the camera is closer than in the other two nest boxes. It would be fun so see the mergansers from this view. I really hope she stays!

I’ve now replaced the outdoor view of the east nest and the creek that I was streaming (kind of a placeholder; not much to see most of the time) with the inside view of the west nest. (To watch go to birdsgv.com and use the “Live Cameras” button.)

As previously reported, the wood duck in the east nest is incubating. She’s in the nest box most of the time. Not much is happening in the south nest, a few visits here and there but no eggs yet.

The hooded merganser recently has been visiting the west nest box every other day to leave an egg. She’s added 3 in the past few days. The first one has been there for longer, 10 days. It’s still alive; the eggs are dormant until incubation begins. The increase in visits suggests maybe she’ll incubate there. I recall from past years that an egg every other day was typical for the merganser. The west nest now has 4 merganser eggs and 1 wood duck egg. Since visits are infrequent and short (less than an hour) I’m still not streaming that camera.

The east nest box has a dozen wood duck eggs and 2 hooded merganser eggs. As you’ve seen if you watch the cameras, the duck is in there incubating almost all of the time. She leaves for an hour or two in the evening to go out for food.

Still no action in the south nest box: only a few very short visits on most days, and on some days no visits at all.

East nest: The wood duck who has claimed the East nest started incubation on Friday. The eggs in that nest were cool to the touch on Thursday afternoon but she stayed overnight and they were warm on Friday. Estimated jump day is thus May 18th plus or minus several days. Wood duck incubation time is anywhere from 28 to 37 days so it’s hard to know until the eggs start hatching on the day before they leave the nest. She has 12 eggs: 10 of these are wood duck eggs although one is small and perhaps infertile, two are hooded merganser eggs. (If that seems unusual, see this section of my Ducks Info page.)

West nest: A wood duck left an egg yesterday morning; I hope she decides to come back. There are just two eggs now. The other is a hooded merganser egg that has been there for more than a week. It’s dormant but still alive and can hatch if a duck starts to incubate.

South nest: Not much activity. A few quick visits.

Cameras: Something new: I’ve set up a camera looking at the East nest box from the outside. The view is off center partly to avoid showing my neighbor’s back yard and partly because the creek has duck activity too sometimes. You can watch both inside and outside the nest box simultaneously and that can be interesting, especially in the morning when other ducks are around. Here’s what was happening at 10 o’clock this morning:

There are now 10 wood duck eggs and 2 hooded merganser eggs in the East nest. The merganser eggs were “dumped” there (see the topic “Eggs & Dumping” on my info page). It’s a wood duck that is claiming the nest box. One of the merganser eggs was just sitting out on the ground when I went to check yesterday. I think a duck must have laid it there because I don’t know of any way it could have gotten out of the nest box. I put it into the box with the others.

The wood duck who has been laying eggs in the East nest is starting to add down to this nest box so she’ll start incubating soon. I’m still not streaming video from any cameras yet -even in the active East nest she’s in there for less than an hour each day right now – but that will change soon.

A merganser was in the west nest for a while this morning and left an egg. First egg in that nest. I hope she chooses it but we’ll see; on egg doesn’t mean she intends to use it. The South nest has had only a few very brief visits so far; for example, a wood duck was in it for about 5 minutes today, kicking wood chips around. Hopefully all three will get used, but last year it was only two of the three.