Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management Wood Duck Fledging and Bass

We have had four fledgings of wood ducklings from our two boxes this year. The female always leaves with the ducklings within just a few minutes and takes them through the woods to the undeveloped property next door. I caught the last fledging with my video surveillance system. The 4-channel version illustrates the ducklings climbing out of the box and then jumping to the water. http://youtu.be/LWFF0ijnWx0
You can make out three splashes that looked to me like bass trying to catch the ducklings as they landed. It looked like the third one was probably successful. The single channel version looked even more convincing. http://youtu.be/rVBLPSs2UNY
The duckling that jumped just after the large splash moved across the water to Mama really fast; I guess it saw what had just happened to his sibling, and wanted no part of that.

The bass were stocked in the summer of 2010, and the largest we have caught so far are a just a little over one pound. The survival rate of wood ducklings is pretty low, and I guess bass are one reason.

Ducklings never survive more than a few days on our pond. Between the bass and the snapping turtles, they have zero chance.

Great vid's F Charlie!
M Nature can be cruel, but such is the circle of life. This is why we stocked SMB instead of LMB. Regretfully, our snapping turtle population is much less regulated.

Brettski, they can be regulated. Trot line and chicken gizzards. You shouldn't catch any of your other fish in the pond that way either.

It has always been disappointing that the female wood ducks take the ducklings away as soon as they leave the box. I know they are shy, but I wish I could figure a way to get them to hang around longer. In early spring I have seen as many as a dozen wood ducks on the one acre pond, and I have seen no indication of snapping turtles getting them. The area around the pond is mostly centipede with some oaks and maples on the west side where the boxes are. I don't want it to go completely wild, but I would be interested in suggestions for plantings that would encourage them to hang around.

Last year I started a small auxiliary 30 foot diameter pond to be separated from the main pond with a small dam. But the water came up before I got the dam finished. The eventual plan for the little pond is as a habitat safe from the bass for frogs and other critters. I may move one of the boxes to the middle of the little pond to give the ducklings at least a few minutes of protection.

Any other ideas?

Put 'em on land. A quote from the Wood Duck Society:

I have always put my boxes in the water, because I figured it might be a little harder for predators to get to the boxes. But now that my bass have grown large enough to become predators, I may rethink that strategy. Putting it in the frog pond may be a good compromise--that is, if I ever actually get the frog pond finished.

Have you thought about just putting down some kind of fish cage in the big pond, and using that for frog/duckling habitat? That should keep bass out, and it'd be a heck of a lot easier than building a second pond.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but does anyone have any experience with Black-bellied Whistler ducks?

For the last 3 years, we've had nesting birds, and everything I read says the Lake Fork TX area is to far North for them. Apparently you can build nesting boxes very similar to wood ducks, but I'm not sure the warmer weather hasn't caused this somehow.

We had 30 on the lake this morning, and they almost seem tame. They just swim across the lake if I'm mowing or on the mule, and never seem to care one way or the other. Momma loves them, and I would love to keep them coming back.

Ya talking about these guys?

That's them. Were these pics from Indiana? If so, then their range is a lot farther north than the interweb led me to believe?

Nope, they were from a buddy's property that is about 60 miles East of Dallas. He has wood duck nesting boxes on his property and both the woodies and whistling ducks use the boxes.

Great, thanks. Now I have a plan. The Whistler's love the reeds I leave around the East side of the lake so I think I have my winter projects lined out. More Blue Bird houses and start building duck houses.

And 60 miles East of Dallas is pretty close to where my place is at also. Glad to find out that their range is moving North. They're very interesting little birds.

thanks, esshup.

esshup, have you talked to your Miller Grove guy lately? Whistler's rolled in this week almost to the exact same day as last year. They're almost tame, and have seemed to have adopted a resident Mallard that moved here from a neighbor's pond this summer.

I've been meaning to give him a shout and now's an even better reason!

When does season open down there? He said they usually bail out of there by the time hunting season rolls around.

Hopping on the phone now.....

I believe it's Nov 2nd for Hopkins Co.

Anyone who would shoot black-bellied whistling ducks would probably find nothing wrong with shooting kittens.
The ducks are increasing their numbers and their range.
Nesting boxes for whistling ducks need to be about two inches larger than wood duck boxes and need a five inch diameter access port.
They are trusting, easily approached and easily domesticated. I had dozens of them around my ponds until some jerks decided to cook up a few. They have never returned and neither will the jerks.

Dudley, just curious. How did the hunter's get on your place, were they trespassers?

We don't allow hunting of any type on our property, so I'm just wondering how you handled it.

I wish some would show up on my pond in east central Alabama. I would gladly evict the ungrateful woodies and modify my boxes for the more sociable whistling ducks. The woodies grace my pond beginning in January, but flee if I even step out in the front yard. The females raise two or three broods in each of my two boxes each year, but leave with their babies the day after hatching--never to be seen again.

Dudly, I think I'd draw the line at kittens. Feral cats? That's a different story.

I'd like to get one drake and have it on the wall as a conversation piece for the duck hunters that come to the house up here. They would have no idea what it was.

Just like I'd love to have a pair of Woodies mounted on part of a tree that had a large woodpecker hole or a rotted out branch so it looked like it was a nesting site. I'd go so far as to get a freeze dried duckling that was colored like a baby woodie and possibly have it peeking out of the nest hole.

When I lived in So. Cal I raised Woodies and Mandarin Ducks. Had to have approval from the DNR, and also had to pinion them so they couldn't fly even tho the cage was completely enclosed. Both are cavity nesters, and about the same size.

FIH, they were boys. One was the son of a Christian man who sometimes helped me; the other was a friend of that boy. Out of respect of the father, I gave permission to the son to fish my ponds.
Knowing that few things are fun alone, I didn't object when he brought his friend along. After a while they decided to start killing anything alive. Whatever was alive, they wanted dead. When I found a poorly built blind on the pond bank, I mentioned it to the father who told me that his son and his friend had done it. I banned both boys from the property unless they were with the father. Later, I discovered that the son's friend and another boy had vandalized my camp and sheds, stealing a rifle, shotgun and other items, and drowning my trail cameras.
Out of respect for the father, his son is still allowed on the property if with the father. The other boy isn't allowed on the property at all. Actually, I might allow him on the property if he showed up with Jesus holding his hand. The third boy just turned 18 and I haven't reported him to authorities, choosing to let him move into adulthood without the problems that an arrest would introduce right out of the chute.
Wise or not, that's how I handled it.

It always seems to happen.