This morning I watched as the last of the Hooded Mergansers fledged--
dropping like fuzzy stones onto Fawn Lake. Below, the mother Hoodie
was waiting, with the other nine chicks gathered around her on the
water. Then she led them away in a tight cluster.

This Hooded Merganser nest box was one of three duck boxes in front
of our house, all of them occupied this year. The one we are
watching with an infrared video camera is a Wood Duck, and it is in
the very late stages of incubation (maybe day 32, though the
beginning time of incubation was a bit fuzzy). This box had a high
degree of egg-dumping by at least one other Wood Duck and a Hooded
Merganser, and we estimate that there are about 30 eggs that the
female is trying to cover. Not all will hatch because she simply
can't supply enough body warmth for incubation of them all. It will
be interesting, and I will let you know the results in a few days.

Lee Rentz
Shelton, WA, USA
lee at leerentz.com
http://leerentz.wordpress.com (blog about nature and photography)
http://www.youtube.com/user/duckwatch (video)