Well, I'm done with my Christmas shopping! Boy, will Donna-ski be surprised! In a way, I hope this will be the gift that keeps giving.
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4 Wood Duck boxes, ready to mount. There are a bunch of plans for these things on the www, but I opted to work with the basic dimensions and details from the
LSU Ag Center plans . The
Wood Duck Society is another great site for info. Each unit used 1 pc of 1" x 12" x 120" lumber. I started with the idea to use cedar, recovered from sticker shock, and drifted down to the pine rack and used some exterior primer and light gray exterior stain I had in stock. I painted the entire roof, also. Then, some aluminum drip edge, a hunk of white roll roofing attached with dabs of polyurethane roof caulk-adhesive, and the next stop is the pondsite.
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The front panel is hinged right to the overhang of the roof panel. I learned some real helpful tips from Myron the Wood Duck guy, an extremely helpful guy I met online while googling Wood Duck stuff. One thing that is not a mystery is the absolutely, most critical item on the materials list. A section of 1/4" galvanized hardware cloth
firmly attached to the interior of the box, running from the bottom of the box up to the entry/exit hole. This is necessary to allow the ducklings the ability to climb up and out of the box, often the next day or two after they hatch. If there are any malfunctions with this simple duck ladder, it becomes a death trap. Then Myron adds his tip to tilt the boxes when mounting and installing, top forward, to allow a slight angle of about 2" off plumb to assure the ducklings can make it out. Strangely, if and when they hatch and make it out, they won't return for the balance of the year. They literally jump out and head for the nearest wetland area to develop. We hope they find our zone a welcome home.
The location of the houses and their mounting poles are planned to be about 20 or 30 feet out from the flooded timberline. When I asked him about cluster or orientation, Myron notes:
People have set up three in a row�that would be ok but no more than 3 in a row. I was told they can decipher left and right and middle but any more than that and they can�t decipher where they were.
He strongly warns against installation on a tree or similar due to the ease of predation. We will definitely engineer a predator guard on the pole. I asked Myron if I should even bother hurrying up and installing them this winter, or wait until spring (assuming the water level won't be that high yet). He said to install them right away. It is not unusual for other birds to use them as safe haven during the winter. He lives in a northern climate and said he went to clean out one of his many boxes in December. He opened one and got this surprise.
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Myron explains:
Attached is a pic of an Eastern Screech Owl I came across when I was cleaning out WD nest boxes in Dec 2004. It startled the heck out of me because this was only the second time I came across a critter in the box at this time of the year. The first time I was startled even worse when I started to open the door on a box [that some else had installed in a tree] and a mink came out of it frantically fast. I thought I was going to get bitten.
I asked him to further describe the owl encounter, particularly as to how he managed a picture:
Once I heard the noise in the box and saw the critter I slowly and quietly closed the door. Then I pulled out my Cannon Power Shot S60 and slowly opened the door and took one or two photos and quietly closed the door. Yes, the owl was in the middle of a day-time deep sleep. It looked like a human getting woke up at 03:00�it couldn�t hardly open its eyes and it also was startled. What a little cutie ha?
So, we will see how the weather holds up and if Donna-ski is up for some Christmas present installation.
