Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management Getting ready for spring duck flight

Hello PB family. Just wanted to check in, and share a little activity from our central Iowa pond. Besides doing a little hard water fishing during winter, I use the ice cap to work on my wood duck boxes. As some of you may recall from past posts here, I have several wood duck boxes (both wooden and plastic) and have one box with a camera in it. I've shared a live stream of that box some years on YouTube. I've always wanted to upgrade my camera setup to wireless, and finally figured out how to do it. My first camera ran off an ethernet connect camera, with power running over the ethernet cable. That box was close to shore and my house so I was able to shallow trench in the waterproof cable to the edge of the pond and then along the bottom and up the pole in the duck house. I did that on the ice several years ago. Amazingly, it worked! We had a blast learning about what goes on inside a wood duck nest box, when the first egg is laid, what goes on during brooding and then watching hatch out and jump out (which occurs in one 24 hr period about 30 days after she begins full time egg sitting). All good stuff. But I have 5 other boxes on the water and one on shore, and always wished I could see what went on in all of them (it's pretty addictive once you see what's happening in there). So may plan was to install a long range wi-fi access point on the roof of my house (i.e. an antenna that broadcasts wi-fi signal over my whole property), and then create/find wi-fi cameras in the other boxes. Access points are common hardware and I found and installed that last year. I get up to 75 Mbps all over my property now (out to about 600 meters from the house). Check. Then I began trying to find the pieces to put together a wireless camera setup. I tried building a setup with a camera from the same company I had used initially with ethernet. While they did have a wi-fi camera, I would have to supply my own power source and a way to connect it to the camera. It also had a long range antenna, but needed wires and connections. Whole setup got bulky and complicated and expensive dang quick. Plus, the boss lady outvoted me in committee at our annual 'state of the pond's budget' meeting. Then I went looking for a camera with all my wish list needs already manufactured. I was hoping some smart engineer had already made what I needed. Bingo! While it was a setup for a wi-fi solar bird feeder camera, it was exactly what I needed! Aaaand, it was cheap! I get them for ~ $50 on-line when on sale. All I had to do was carefully deconstruct it out of the bird feeder and make a simple attachment bracket and I was in business! I will show some pictures so you get the gist. I would be happy to share specifics if you message me. I don't want to shill for any products that aren't supporting the forum directly. The only draw back so far is, the app to view the cameras only works on your smart phone. They haven't made a desk top version of their app, so I haven't been able to set up a live stream...yet. I keep sending e-mails to them in hopes they'll put out a desktop app one of these days. There's probably a work around, but my computer and networking skills are slim and none, and slim's on a diet.
Here's a few photos. I"ll share some stills and short video's later this spring after the ducks arrive. The first flight has historically been within 3-5 days of ice off. When the ice goes off, somehow the ducks know. Must be on social media? Facebook? Quacker?? (like twitter, but for ducks..)









Off season tenant, Eastern screech owl (he's about the size of pop can):

Thanks for the additional info.

My wood ducks only make due with the natural cavities they find in the woods along our creek. If I ever get caught up on my 100 other projects, I want to copy some of your duck boxes.



By the way, you are the 2nd PB member to have a screech owl in their duck nesting boxes over the past year.

Perhaps we need to create a little more screech owl habitat in our wildlife support projects!

Love the cameras in the box, watching the progress was interesting the last couple yrs.
I have seven boxes out now, took advantage of the hard water to clean out and add shavings to my boxes and add a seventh box, had one box where the duck had abandoned the eggs for some reason, 16 eggs still in the box, along with a screech owl, posted some pics of it earlier in the what did you do at your pond today thread I think, wound up with two different screech owls in two different boxes, chowing down on bluejays, a half eaten blue jay with one owl and tons of BJ feathers in all the boxes.

The duck hut boxes have had way less interest and have only had a couple ducks in them a couple times, not sure why, they were further up toward the front of the pond so maybe they weren't as comfortable with them so I moved them further to the back in some flooded timber see if they do better, that's where most of the ducks hang out.

I would like to do a few cameras but I would have to figure out some sort of game camera I could install that if nothing else I could get some stills whenever there is movement.

My pond is remote, way back in the sticks and no way to get wifi anywhere close to it, barely have cell signal out there, only in some areas of the pond.

Looking forward to pictures!

Any updates Dr. Luke? Do you have a live camera feed going still?

Screeches amaze me. An old girlfriend did some rehab work and they will eat a full grown white lab mouse whole. I never thought that something that small would slurp down a whole mouse at once.

Canyon-
Here are a few pictures and and update. I didn't get the live stream figured out yet, but still working on it. I think there is something called an 'app emulator' that can be installed on your desktop PC, which allows you to run phone apps. That would be the bridge I need to get a stream up. Per my ballpark math, my first hatch out is next week, so maybe this weekend I can get it up and going. I'll post a link when or if I get it to work.

Hello.

DrLUKE. Thank you for taking the time to take these picture.
A+

Great pictures Doc.

I have nesting ducks in several of my nest boxes as I have seen them going in and out of them, I don't have cameras in them so don't know for sure, I did take a few pics thru the hole earlier on when I was pretty sure they wouldn't be setting yet.

That's one of my favorites when we go out camping at the farm is the activity of the birds.

Had Turkeys, wood ducks, orioles, bluebirds, purple martins, tree swallows, and a whole host of other flying objects to watch.

I love getting a cup of coffee and a pair of binoculars, and my bird app in the mornings and relax at the picnic table, watching their activity.

really appreciate you posting pictures and the pictures are fantastic! Would love to see some more around here. I hope you capture 'jump day' and that you have many successful live chicks!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15vXBdayQNehvaWHKKruoJL7QI8mUVPPR/view?usp=sharing

Duck hatchling jump out video, outside view. First chick actually doesn't jump till 5:19 mark in video, for those wanting to 'cut to the chase'. 15 total chicks.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NLLyWTufMkb8aHQ8gZMPstlG6se5jtIP/view?usp=drive_link

Video after all chicks out, and hen taking to pond edge to swim away. Can't see it on video, but she accidentally took them to the edge at exactly the spot where a LMB is nesting. I could see him really well with binoculars. I was worried he'd snap up a chick or two (and I think the hen saw him too and got nervous). But no such calamities (at least for today) and they swam past him and to the far edge. Whew.

Thanks for sharing and so awesome it was on camera!! It seems the mom duck and babies don't stay in the pond long? Where do they go and why do they leave immediately? It would see the pond would be a safe place for them (outside of the underwater ambush from big LMB)

EDIT: You posted the google drive links but they are set to be private so we can't see them. You would have to edit the properties to make the public viewable or we can request permission from you to open them?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JCVTWTsxqlmbv1L7hi5IGJGfmhWigMOG/view?usp=drive_link

Finally got the inside the box video uploaded. First duckling doesn't climb the mesh until time stamp 6:12, just FYI.

Sorry about the link restriction. I think I fixed the access, changed to public.

My experience with WHY the hen takes them away is tied into what her remaining role is as the mother. Ducks don't directly provide any food (no nursing), so her job is to: 1. Keep as many of them alive as possible. Everything with a tooth filled mouth will eat ducklings (coons, possum, coyotes, hawks/owls, LMB, on and on). The literature says duckling survivability to adulthood is around 30%, so only about 5 of these ducklings will make the fall flight. 2. Keep them warm (especially while very little). She helps the find dry spots on shore, in the weeds/tall grass, and then lets them snuggle under her for warmth. In 10-14 days, it won't be as critical, but right now is needed. 3. Keep them fed. Wood ducks are herbivores primarily, but do eat bugs and small crustaceans (snails, etc). Baby ducks love duck weed (which is about the only reason to like that dang plant), so she'll take them to places with just the right forage for them, at the right time.

We do occasionally (rarely?) see the classic parade of ducklings behind their momma, but it's the exception. I think big, open spaces on the water just has too much downside, from a predator point of view.

Let me know if the links are working/accessable.

The links are working and thanks for fixing them!! the view is amazing!

A couple comments and questions
--so the Wood ducks are OK with nesting in the open and above land instead of over water? I always thought my lack of success had to do with too much activity around the nest and not having it in a safe enough space above the water. It sounds like the ducks in your area are fine with your location.

--watching the ducklings try to get out you can see that about 80% of their attempts are ineffective and most of the time they are looking every way EXCEPT the way where the hole is. It is as if they look at the metal mesh and that doesn't look right to them so they try all 3 of the other sides over and over. Would they find it easier if all 4 sides had mesh or some other grippy type of soft wood they could get their claws in? Or would it be easier if the side they need to climb out at was something that looked more like a natural inside of a tree rather than metal? Maybe some grippy bark attached inside the box on that side or on more than one side? I was thinking even if the side with the exit, and the two adjacent sides had something they could grip (and nothing on the side opposite the hole) they would have made it out easier as many times they got up the adjacent sides and tried to fly towards the hole.

obviously eventually they all got out so it may be a moot point.

--funny question. How does momma know when to stop calling them? Does she count them as they come out Probably she just waits till she hears no more fussing in the box above and then figures they must be all out..

About where the ducks go after jump day that makes a lot of sense. I just see mallard ducks with the parade of young ones often hang around in the streams and ponds for a while and I would have thought their young are also vulnerable but wood ducks you don't see them in the open.

Seeing the amazing built in nurturing and ability to care for the young that is so powerfully instinctive always impresses me about the amazing blueprint that is found in their tiny brains.

re: nesting over water vs land. I think the hen will take whatever likely nest hole she can find, whatever the location. I know wood ducks often use holes in trees created by woodpeckers (the bigger ones, like flickers and pileated), and those are most often dead/dying trees in the forest. I'm sure flooded timber, if it has big enough trees for nesting holes, would be preferred. Nest boxes over water are just a built in safety feature. I've had mink raid that exact house I posted the videos for and eat all the eggs (only took it about 90 seconds).

re: chicks climbing out of nest box. yeah, they (almost) always find the correct wall with the mesh on it and then climb up and out. In older wooden boxes, we used to cut furrows in the board below the opening, which gave the chicks easier purchase to climb up, but metal mesh (aka hardware cloth) works even better and is easier to install. The Duck Hut plastic boxes have a plastic mesh installed below the hole, which also works great.

re: Momma duck calling to chicks. My opinion is that she CAN hear any chicks moving around in the box and keeps clucking to coax them out, until all is quiet. However, in a few rare cases, the last chick or two just couldn't figure out how to climb out and got tired out and quit trying. Once they went quiet, momma duck left with the chicks she had. If I had a camera in that box, I would go out and rescue the chicks. If I didn't, I would find them expired when I changed nest chips. Nature is rough. Most pass/fail tests bear the death penalty.

And lastly, I also LOVE me a wood duck! Seeing less than 24 hr old chicks climb up to a hole in the wall of their whole world and just blindly jump out also impresses me. Sometimes they hit water, sometimes land. They bounce hard and then get busy swimming or running. Not a bad lesson. Sometimes we just have to jump out of our box and getting busy swimming...

Any sign of the hen and young ducks after they jumped? Will the nest box get used again this year?

No, never seen them again, to date

Great video, Thanks Dr Luke, I think most of mine have hatched and gone although I did have one duck bailed out of the house when I got too close to it when fishing, I wouldnt have but I assumed they had probably already fledged.

I always was curious where they went after they hatched, they just disappear.

I did get a picture of some in the pond a time or two but seldom.

In the video I was curious if the camera light was disorienting the little ones some, would they have concentrated more on the light of the door opening in a regular scenario?

I seen a fresh hatched flock of turkeys at the farm the other day, they were really fresh, maybe a day old.

Also seen a few newborn fawns, one was in the road, still wobbly so it was pretty newborn. tis the season.