SREL Reprint #3296

Hooded Mergansers breeding in the upper coastal plain of South Carolina

Robert A. Kennamer

Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, P.O. Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802

Abstract: Densities of breeding Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) in the southeastern United States are generally considered low (Bellrose 1980), and there is only limited information on their breeding biology (Morse et al. 1969, Kennamer et al. 1988). In South Carolina, for example, there are only a few reports of isolated breeding (Post and Gauthreaux 1989, McNair and Post 1993). Kennamer et al. (1988) reported that from 1982 through 1988, Hooded Merganser use of >100 Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) nest boxes on the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken and Barnwell Counties, South Carolina, averaged less than one percent annually. In this account, I present additional data on breeding Hooded Mergansers at this same location from 1989 through 1996. Study areas on the SRS and methods used during this study were the same as those previously described in Kennamer et al. (1988).

SREL Reprint #3296

Kennamer, R. A. 1997. Hooded Mergansers breeding in the upper coastal plain of South Carolina. The Chat 61(2): 117-119.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).