Hooded Merganser nesting season at home

Hooded Mergansers leaving nest, Home, Belchertown, MA, May 27, 2020

Another nesting season for the Hooded Mergansers at the house has come to a close as of this morning when the birds in the second active nest box fledged.  I was able to capture video of the birds leaving both active nests this year and the links to the videos are below and well worth watching.  I had mixed results with setting up game cameras to capture the birds leaving the boxes last year but worked out the kinks so this year I had good luck with both boxes (although I may need to get a camera with a longer set up for video to capture all the birds leaving the nest).  This was the first year I have had eggs in all three boxes (unfortunately the third box ended up with just a single egg in it so not sure what happened to the bird that laid the single egg).

Video of the majority of the birds leaving nest box #1 at the following link.  Additional link to second video capturing two more leaving the nest box.

Video of the birds leaving nest box #2 at the following link.

I have detailed the nesting for this year in each of the three boxes below.

First eggs in box, Home, Belchertown, MA, Mar 18, 2020

Lots of eggs in box, Home, Belchertown, MA, Mar 26, 2020

Eggs covered with down, Home, Belchertown, MA, Mar 31, 2020

Remaining eggs in box after fledging, Home, Belchertown, MA, May 6, 2020

The first box to have eggs in it was box #1 with the first eggs noticed on March 18.  I checked on a few occasions as more and more eggs appeared and then stopped checking once I knew the hen was sitting on the eggs.  Given the very large number of eggs in this box I suspect a bit of egg dumping occurred with this nest.  The young fledged on May 6 and there were a few unhatched eggs left behind.

Link to video of young leaving nest here

First eggs in box, Home, Belchertown, MA, Mar 26, 2020

Several eggs in box, Home, Belchertown, MA, Apr 13, 2020

Hooded Merganser sitting on eggs, Home, Belchertown, MA, Apr 15, 2020

Eggs covered in down, Home, Belchertown, MA, May 11, 2020

Eggs starting to hatch, Home, Belchertown, MA, May 25, 2020

Egg remnants after fledging, Home, Belchertown, MA, May 27, 2020

The second box to have eggs in it was box #2 with the first eggs noticed on March 26.  I also checked on a few occasions as more and more eggs appeared and found the hen sitting on the eggs on April 15.  I checked a few more times over the subsequent weeks and the young finally fledged on May 27.

Link to video of the young leaving nest today here

First egg in box, Home, Belchertown, MA, Apr 13, 2020

Only egg in box, Home, Belchertown, MA, Apr 13, 2020

The final box to get eggs this year was box #3 which I relocated to a better location last year in the hopes a bird would accept the box.  I found a single egg in the box on May 6 and on subsequent checks the single egg remained the only egg to make it into the nest this year.  Hopefully next year this final box will also be successful.

Hooded Merganser chicks in  box #2, Home, Belchertown, MA, Apr 30, 2012

Hooded Merganser chicks leaving nest box, Home, Belchertown, MA, May 1, 2018

I have had duck boxes up since 2012 and have had at least one active nest every year and the last couple years have featured two boxes being used with this year being the first year all three boxes had at least an egg.  Despite having Wood Ducks in the brook and marsh every year the nest boxes have always been used by Hooded Mergansers.  Over the years I have captured some nice photos of the eggs and even managed to capture the young in the nest before they fledged.  They hatch and leave the box with just a couple days so it is tough to capture them still in the nest, especially if you try not to be too intrusive.