Merganser in West nest, we hope

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.