Woodduck boxes

[cj]

I'll be putting up about a dozen of these very soon. They are already made, but wanted some suggestions on mounting them up. Treated 4x4 posts, steel poles, how far from the water, how high up off the ground??? Any suggestions?

[Seldom]

Hey CJ, it just so happens that one of the studies within the dioxin Project has to do with wood ducks. I've helped the doctorate student with this study for the past three years. Your question comes at a point in time when I was thinking last night if I should start a thread about wood ducks and prep of the boxes.

They are already made, but wanted some suggestions on mounting them up.

Inside the boxes and from the bottom of the hole down there should be tacked or stapled 1/4" screen so the chicks can climb up easier to jump out of the hole.

Treated 4x4 posts, steel poles,

You can also screw them into trees and wrap brown, aluminum flashing around the tree as a predator guard. Make sure that there's no big limbs from other trees near the boxes. The coons will get to the box on surprisingly small limbs.

how far from the water

Within sight, they don't have to be over the water. The little buggers will follow mom to the water.

how high up off the ground???

A minimum of 15', 25' is optimum and set the box so that the hole is facing SE (direction is quite important) regardless of where the water is in relation to the hole.

If folks have had boxes out since last year they need to open them up and clean them out including evicting any trespassers such as squirrels, Screech owls, bees, etc. and put in fresh bedding (pine shaving & pine nuggets bought at Lowe's, etc.).

I'll post some pics of evictees later.



Blue Jay farts were a dead give-away!

Mr. or Mrs. crap in your own nest type bird!

A clean house but a bent gyroscope!


Yesterday and today the doctorate student and a grad helper were out cleaning boxes and evicting. They told me last night that they took two boxes to a beekeeper to show him the dead bees. Several boxes had squirrels with babies in them and a handful had more Screech owls. I seem to recall he's got over 80 boxes stretched out along 24 odd miles of river that are being readied this spring.

All boxes are tree mounted and the PhD candidate and helpers (post & pre grads-male & female) do the climbing. We had one young lady get up a tree last year but had a little height problem on the way down and had to take a break and collect herself n big crotch for an hour before finishing her climb.

[coonguy]

thats pretty cool seldom

[Admin]

Seldom, That's a very cool reply ;D Have a few Karma

[cj]

Seldom, thanks for the help. Those are the answers I was looking for. Have some Karma. (Still hope you re-concider making it to the catfish get-together )

[badger]

Very cool info!!!

[adkwildflower]

This is s very cool thread. Seldom, how did you get those pictures of the owls without them flying off? Very interesting ;D

Have a Karma

[Seldom]

Hello adkwildflower,

how did you get those pictures of the owls without them flying off?

The little buggers have an attitude and are VERY territorial. Like this is my house, beat it!! When they're released the student has to hold one hand over the hole because they'll try to get back in. If they can't immediately get back in the box they seem to give up and not return.

[Seldom]

Here's a good example of why you check and clean out your wood duck boxes.

I talked with one of the students that's out checking and cleaning the wood duck boxes today. She said the worst one they found this spring had a wood duck nest with 10 rotten eggs, the box was filled 8" deep with honey comb and dead bees, AND a fox squirrel nest with mama and two babies!! That's a box full!!!

[Admin]

seldom said:

the worst one they found this spring had a wood duck nest with 10 rotten eggs, the box was filled 8" deep with honey comb and dead bees

Sounds like there was a lot of that birds & the bees stuff goin on in there

[bigpat]

JC that's a good one. Sounds to me like something that oughta make a decent coon bait.

[hounddog25]

nice pic's of non-woody types in the boxes.i love birds of prey...i would have a hard time evicting them....lol...i would make a poor landlord.....i got one box made and need to get it up soon.i just cant get the woodys to hang around.there were about 50 here for about 10 days and now they are gone...i assume they went farther north???.....i seen a tv show about a guy who had all these wood ducks around his property.he had boxes mounted on side of barn and they nested in them also.good post folks

[Admin]

hounddog25 said:

...i got one box made and need to get it up soon.i just cant get the woodys to hang around.there were about 50 here for about 10 days and now they are gone

It's cause you aint got that dang box up yet

[hounddog25]

you so funny....i meant i cant get them to stay in the box that i have up....or the hollow trees around the pond.....lol...something is just not to their likeing...maybe its me.i do smell funny and look ugly....lol...but you are right...i need to get the other box up so the owls can nest in it.like i say if you cant have wood ducks hanging out.....go for owls....lol...

[Seldom]

Hounddog25, I don't know if you can relate your pond to ours up here but if wood ducks (water fowl in general) don't seem to want to hang around and nest, it can mean you've got an over population of snapping turtles in your pond.

A friend of mine has a 30 acre pond (small lake) and a few years ago mentioned to me that the woodies had quit using his nesting boxes. I asked him if the geese were nesting and he said no, they had kind of quit as well. I'd read someplace that if your pond had developed an over population of snappers that the waterfowl can smell them and refuse to nest.

That night my buddy turned on his dock light to show me his huge gills and trout as they came in while he feed them. What we saw was amazing, big snappers followed the gills just into the light. They came in from all directions and were trying to grab the fish while my buddy was feeding them. We shot 6 or 7 once we got them into shallow enough water where the .22 would work. He was shocked at the numbers that apparently were living in such a small space by his dock and size (about 14" across).

Since that evening he built several turtle traps and has been catching the devil out of the snappers since. Two years ago his woodies started nesting again and he's got some of those "crap-where-you-walk" geese nesting again.

I don't know if that's your problem but is was his.

[hounddog25]

thanks for the advice about turtles.i got a few mallards hanging around but those woodies just took off.but to be honest it is probably because i have to drive over the dam to get to my house.so it could be to much activity for them to feel comfortable???what you think about that???they hang around for a bit but soon fly away.the mallards tend to be a little more tolerant of the vehicle crossing the dam.wished the pond was out back in the back 40.but it is not so i just have to deal with it.when i first bought this place no ducks used the pond at all.i have let the trees grow up around it and ducks seem to like it much better now.also once i had over 200 geese on the pond.it is only about 1/4 acre.