Ducks are here!

In the past two weeks we’ve occasionally seen wood ducks in the creek or sometimes on the bank near the nest boxes. However there have been no nest box visits … except today, for the first time, and it was a hooded merganser! We always have wood ducks here but it’s special to see the mergansers. In some years recently a hooded merganser has claimed the South nest box and that’s where she was, with her guy waiting in the creek just below the box. She was in there for about 15 minutes, just visiting, and that’s typical. The ducks start out by sitting in the nest box for a few minutes now and then and this goes on for a week or two, before they get serious about laying.

Here’s the merganser in the nest box today. The glare of light off of the snow (we got 6 inches of it last night) came in through the opening and made the duck look hazy, even after some tune-up.