OK – a question for all of you duck experts out there. This week I added an additional Wood Duck next box here at the Stivland ranch in Plymouth. As part of the project, we cleaned out the existing boxes. Sadly, one of the Wood Duck boxes had 13 un-hatched eggs in it. The other box was inhabited by “our” resident Hooded Merganser. There was only one un-hatched egg in that box. Presumably, that would explain the broods we observed on the pond at about the time we expected hatching chicks. Our Wood Duck hen had only two chicks in tow. The Hoody had 7 Hooded Merganser chicks and 4 baby Wood Ducks.
Since I have not had the benefit of Breeding Bird Atlas observations this year (very few trips to my areas) I do not know if this is a general problem or a local one. In other words, was the nest failure; 1) Long cold spring possibly compromising the eggs prior to incubation, 2) Inexperienced hen doing a poor job of incubation, 3) Unfertilized eggs, or 4) something else? Last spring, I observed many Wood Duck broods on ponds and very few Mallards. I have pondered a camera in the nesting box for several years. Maybe this is the impetus I need to peer into the problem. Sid Stivland Plymouth, MN ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
