I previously mentioned this morning's fledging from the Wood Duck box
on Fawn Lake. Now, about 4.5 hours later, a female Hooded Merganser
entered the box and looked it over. She saw the dying chick and
completed removing it from its half-open eggshell--then picked it up
in its bill and flew out of the nest box with the chick! I suspect
it was cleaning up the nest box in order to establish a new nest, and
that it simply would have dropped the dying chick somewhere a little
way away from the nest box. Anyway, it saved me from going up on the
ladder to do the same job.

There were five Hooded Merganser females clustered on the lake below
our nest boxes this morning. It seemed as if they were waiting for
an apartment to vacate, but perhaps that is only my human-centered
attitude. Or maybe it is exactly what they were doing.

Lee Rentz
Shelton, WA
lee at leerentz.com