Bufflehead Broods

It looks like no ducks nested in the Maxwell Lake nest boxes I put up this spring, but I had much higher hopes for the 4 boxes up Happy Creek. All were well attended by bufflehead and I'm pretty sure they were occupied. I won't know for sure until this winter when I open the boxes to clean them. That's when I'll see if there are any eggshells inside.

Last week my watching was rewarded with two bufflehead broods near two of the nest boxes. The first hen had 10 tiny ducklings and the second had 8. There are still bufflehead hens near the other two boxes, so they might produce little fluffballs yet.

I haven't had much luck getting a good photo of the broods. This photo shows the bufflhead hen with 8 ducklings. Also on the Happy Creek ponds are two mallard hens, one with 2 ducklings and the other with 9.