Hi Tweeters,

We have a citizen volunteer who lives on Beaver Lake in Sammamish and
who puts out nesting boxes every year for mergansers and wood ducks. I
got the following message from him this afternoon, and I wonder if
anyone has information about hatching rates from year to year or
anything that might have happened this year. It doesn't sound like the
nests were vandalized by predators, which was my first thought.

Thanks,

Sally

Sally Bartley Abella

Lake Stewardship Program

Water and Land Resources Division

King County DNRP

201 S. Jackson St, Ste 600

Seattle, WA 98104-3855

phone: 206-296-8382

FAX: 206-296-0192

NOTE: my new email address is Sally.Abella at kingcounty.gov
<mailto:Sally.Abella at kingcounty.gov>





Email from Mr. Petit:

I took down my three duck nesting boxes today in order to clean them up
for next season. I thought you might be interested in what I found in
each of the boxes.



The box occupied by a wood duck this year was located on a pole over the
water. Inside the box I found all of the eggs had hatched, I found only
egg shells amongst the bedding.



The box occupied by a hooded merganser was also located on a pole over
the water. Inside this box I found 4 unhatched eggs and no indication
that any other eggs were laid or hatched.



The final box, also occupied by a hooded merganser, was located about 20
feet above the ground in a cedar tree approximately 15 feet from the
water's edge. Inside this box I found nine unhatched eggs and an
indication that possibly one or two other eggs had hatched (a few egg
shell fragments).



In the past, I found one or two unhatched eggs amongst the egg shells of
the many hatched eggs. I was quite surprised to see so many eggs that
had not hatched this season. I was wondering if you had any ideas as
to why the mergansers appear to have abandoned their nest before the
eggs were hatched?