Wood Duck Boxes

[osprey]

Anybody doing anything with wood duck boxes. I normally take care of cleaning out a bunch on the Marshyhope, took my neighbor kid up there with me today and he had a blast. Heck of a morning for a 10 year old. First set of boxes had a Saw-whet owl nesting in it, owl stayed in the box as we checked it. Lots of old nests from last year, some new started for this year, flushed one hen out that was sitting on 20, YES 20, eggs!! One of the last sets we came to the hen never even left the box, he thought that was pretty cool. That was a pretty spot too, beaver dam right next to it.

Little late getting up there this year, but it was worth it for him to see all that. Here he is poling us to a set of boxes...



What was in one of the boxes...



And the set by the beaver dam. White perch were schooled in the shallows by the dam, shoulda had the rod!!



Going to try and get back up there tomorrow, barely got halfway along where I usually hit.

[Hardcorehunter]

Sounds like a fun day. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO WORK?? Nice day to be on the water for sure.

[osprey]

Cry, probably.

Let me assure you, the first week back is always a crushing blow to my sense of reality! I normally walk around muttering "Is it October yet?" for the rest of summer...

[osprey]

Was back up there today. Just did my totals and so far have hit 68 boxes and had another dozen or so I couldn't get to. Have gotten several this spring I couldn't reach last year, had a much higher tide today that helped. Found a dead saw-whet owl in a box, lots of nests started, and one hen sitting when I opened the box - on TWENTY SEVEN EGGS!!!!!!

It's been really cool this year. The boxes I hit last spring, which then were very dirty and full of old eggs and nests and dead birds and didn't look like they'd been successfully used in several years, all showed usage. Two boxes on almost every pole, one with shell pieces from a successful nest from last year one with a new nest started or sitting this year, and that's almost every box I did last year. When DNR/CWH put them up originally they used real coarse wood chips/chunks for bedding, which the woodies didn't seem to like. I've been using finer red cedar bedding chips/shavings and they really like that stuff.

[Huntin'Fever]

Just put up three boxes on Sunday on my parents property down in the Northern Neck of VA. We took a bunch of pictures but it was with my 35 mm since my digital is getting serviced by Best Buy (aka...it broke for no reason and they're fixing it)

A couple of weekends back I saw 3 pairs Woodies there so we went down early on Sunday (before the box hangin') to see if we could snag a few pics. Needless to say, we ended up having a blast:

2 Gobblers ringing off first thing, a close encounter (2 feet) with the beaver as we were sneaking Rambo style through the creek, a couple of woodies feeding, 2 geese, 8 or so black ducks, and the biggest surprise came with 2 new inhabitants - a pair river otters (I bet the beaver is pissed). We were able to get some stellar pics (or at least I hope so) but we'll have to wait and see how the old 35 mm performed. I'll scan em in and post them soon.

Any chance the river otters will run off the beaver? I've read they use the beaver's den. Basically, the beaver has done such a good job damming the creek up for me that I don't want it to leave. Especially sense we're so "close" now. haha...

I'll post pics of the wood duck boxes too.

...Fever

[cootshooter]

Osprey, I was looking into making a few woodie boxes. How big of a hole should be cut in one of the boxes?

[Hardcorehunter]

Hey Fever, do you have to buy an out of state liscense to hunt VA since you have property there? Also otters are pretty awesome. I want to trap a few but havn't had the time to check traps everyday(since it is usually done by boat) I did get one this year before the season closed. It was hit by a car, now is there mating season can get crazy like the rut, the hide was fine but the skull was in pieces. Inside was a bit like jelly and took quite a bit longer to skin than any other animal. Hides go for $70-$120. Allowed five per season in MD and they have to be tagged with a CITES tag before fifteen days after the season closes. If you have the chance to trap them it would be a lot of fun. But you would probably get the beaver first. They have a very predictable pattern where the otters can be every where. I guess they will ge along ok. Beavers are herbivores and otters omnivores(but mostly meat) so no competition for food.

[Huntin'Fever]

I don't need an out of state license because my parents own the place. The rule goes something like, the owners siblings, children, grandchildren, etc. have rights to the property. I still need to get waterfowl stamps as well as the HIP (Harvest Improvement permit). The HIP is just for record keeping. They randomly call/survey folks.

It's been tons of fun thus far! Again, I'll be posting pics soon.

[osprey]

Coot, here are two good places for plans/boxes - - www.cheswildlife.org/woodbox.pdf
or
www.mwdi.net/mwdi/index.asp

That last one, Maryland Wood Duck Initiative, is a rapidly growing thing, I get Cliff all my info when I do boxes for their records.

Fever, You should be fine. Beavers feed on plants and tree bark, otters eat mainly fish, so no competition. Otters have a much larger range and will be here one day, gone the next, so they probably won't even see much of each other.

[cootshooter]

Thanks,
I will put those plans to good use.

[Huntin'Fever]

Well folks, here are the best of the bunch. I was using 800 speed film to fight low light conditions early on but didn't take most to later around 8:30. As a result, some of the pictures taken were a little "grainy" but not too bad. I'm heading down to VA next weekend and hope to see some eggs! How quickly do they inhabit the boxes?

One of the wood ducks patrolling around the puddle. Man was it foggy early on!


One of our boxes. Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, the water is like 3 ft below us since we're on the stream bank.


A couple of Geese on the "puddle"


One of the river otters checkin' us out.....


We crawled over to the beaver dam for this one and he decided to come investigate. Occasionally they would "snort" at us like deer and try to make us move. It was funny!


I'll post pics of eggs if we get any!

Take care....Fever

[Hardcorehunter]

Cool pics fever. Otter are like little aquatic dogs. Neat.