Teresa Burton, who is in charge of Wood Duck box monitoring for the Minneapolis Park Board had the following comments about this year’s activity in the boxes around Diamond Lake:
Great news: both houses were successful! One house had down, shells, and membranes…only 2 unhatched eggs and the other had shells and membranes and 5 unhatched eggs. What is very interesting is that for the last two years both houses had successful hatches but the same box had no down either year.
Just to recap: 2014 (first year): Unhatched eggs only. Used by hen but possible dump nest? 2015: Down (1 house), eggs, membranes, a few unhatched eggs in each. Success! 2016: Down(1 house), eggs, membranes, fewer unhatched eggs. Success!