Tweeters,
Many years ago, when Carol Spaw and I were conducting a Wood Duck
nesting study at Ft. Lewis, we had one nest that (if memory serves me
correctly) went from having 4 eggs to something like 16 eggs in a couple
of days. The female abandoned that nest.

In addition, about two months ago, a fellow Boeing birder and I saw an
adult female Common Merganser with what appeared to be 18 even-aged
young on the Duwamish River near Hamm Creek and Turning Basin #3. We saw
this "family" several times during a two-week period. We concluded the
"family" must have come from a dump-nest, but I didn't think that
dump-nests were that productive (some eggs aren't kept to temp). Not
sure though.

May all your birds be identified,

Denis DeSilvis
Seattle, WA
mailto:denis.j.desilvis at boeing.com