Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Wood Duck boxes worked

A Moma Woodie and her two ducklings were swimming around the pond yesterday afternoon. She is keeping them close by. So one of the two boxes has produced a home. How cool is that? I took several pics with my Blackberry but to far a distance to produce pics to post up. I am concerned the Bald Eagle might make a meal out of them, he was flying the pond area when I found the Woodie family.

Tracy

Congrats! It's rewarding when a plan comes together!

I put up a wood duck box about 4 weeks ago and I am still waiting for some to move in.I do have a pair of hooded mergansers that are hanging around.The articles that I read said that hooded mergansers will also use wood duck houses.

TGW,
Do you have your boxes mounted in or out of the water?

Congratulations! I put one up over the winter but still no takers. I'm thinking about adding a vacancy sign above it?

The boxes are at the water edge, right now the post are setting in about 1' of water but my pond will rise and fall during the year and these boxes will be out of the water in just a few weeks or months from now. I used 4" pvc pipe to stop any varmints from climbing up and into the boxes. And I added the boxes in and around some Louisiana and Blue flag iris plants. I am still concerned over the fact the Bald Eagle is hanging @ the pond daily, he must have a nest close by. There are pros and cons in my mind when it comes to the Eagle

Tracy

I added my boxes last year and notice a wood duck couple eyeing the box but did not take to it last year. This year I never saw them in or around the boxes and then here they are.

Tracy

Tracy, a friend down there did the same as you with the round posts, in a shallow area of the pond. He also has his martin house at the edge of the pond on a smaller post, but probably 20'-25' up in the air.

He ended up putting raccoon and snake guards on all the poles after he saw a snake poking it's head out of the martin house. He watched a coon swim out to one of the woodie boxes, climb up the post and reach its hand into the box. He couldn't get to his .17 HMR fast enough.

He's also got the Mexican Whistling Ducks using his woodie boxes.

Since putting the guards on his posts, he has had no problems.

I just installed a box about two weeks ago on a tree on the edge of my damn. (i know not good) I have had 2-6 wood ducks on the pond every morning and night this week I am hoping one of the three pairs will take up residency in it.

Some pictures of the wood duck (and his mate not pictured) that stopped in a few times. Got these pictures when we had a freak April snow in MI and then another time in the rain. It is a long zoom from the kitchen window so quality is not that good.

They sure are pretty. I don't know what they eat or why they live up in trees but would love to see them around more.

The mallard duo that is in the pond is upside down eating a lot but never see the wood duck eat from anything in the pond.












Would it help to take one of the many dead trees in the woods around the pond and try to hollow out a suitable cavity with a smallish hole and see if they take residence that way? I see them fly up into the trees say 50 feet in the woods or so and they seem to land higher up (say at least 25 feet high) on a branch when they fly in and out of the pond. Maybe I look to put the hollowed out hole a ways up in the tree and in the outskirts of the woods?

Tracy, congrats.

I don't know everything a wood duck eats, but when the oaks start dropping acorns they eat them like crazy. I've watched them swallow acorns whole. I assume the gizzard does the rest.

Keep us posted Blue72!

We finally got a mating pair to take the nest last week. I think dropping a tree top on the bank for cover and adding a few decoys did the trick. I hope yours stick around too!

Beautiful Todd!!

North 40, I agree with you. I have cleaned several Woodies after a duck hunt or two and finding acorns in them is the norm. One day last fall, I saw up to 35 woodies come flying into the pond. I counted 9 flying in one group. I have 3 TH feeders and when they went off(all set to go off at the same time), the woodies would fly from feeder to feeder. Looked like a race to see witch one would get there first. I saw that happen only one day and have never seen this since. I don't know if they were after the fish or after the fish food, but it sure seamed like they knew what a feeder was and these were wild ducks.
On a side note, I can not be positive, but I think I saw a female Eagle with a young one flying with it yesterday afternoon. The young one was much smaller but was the same in colors, shape etc. I have what I believe is a male Bald Eagle at the pond everyday.

Tracy

Both male and female Bald Eagles have white heads and tails when mature. It takes 2 years for them to get the white feathers.

essup, no mistake on the Bald Eagle that visits the pond everyday. he will sit on different trees, and one day he was setting on a wood duck box. But the new siting was a little different where the smaller bird looked more like the mother flying with it, but I cold be wrong, maybe it was not Bald Eagles but sure did look like one female with its young. Never in a million years did I believe I would have a Bald Eagle hanging out at the pond every day since last January. Crazy

Tracy

I've had an Osprey here once, but never a Bald Eagle. That's cool!!!

Tracy,
Soon after we built our 1 acre pond back in 2009, I noticed several wood ducks hanging around, so I built two boxes and put them out in early spring, 2010. I put them on 1 inch conduit in about two feet of water and added a predator guard made from galvanized stove pipe. Woodies have raised two or more batches in each box every year since then, and so far, video monitoring has not found any instances of predators getting into the boxes.

Unfortunately, in my experience, the female always takes her brood away from my pond immediately after they hatch. I have woods with many sweet gums, oaks, and other trees, and have planted button bush and other attractants, but nothing has worked to keep them around.

One disadvantage of placing the boxes in the water is the danger to the ducklings when they leave the box. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWFF0ijnWx0. I guess that's one of the trade-offs in deciding to have both bass and ducks. Maybe the bass are one reason they leave after hatching. One more thing: A predator guard is no guarantee of protection. I did experience a rat snake getting past a similar commercial predator guard on my purple martin pole and wiping out a whole family of martins.

Farmer Charlie, thanks for your post here. The good feeling I get from seeing Woodies with their new hatch, is a feeling of accomplishment and it makes me feel like I am helping the ducks. The first wood duck box I built was @ my mothers home @ Cross lake here in Shreveport. I built it the same way you did, using the same material as you. Mom told me nothing was going to take to that box. Then one day she called and was so excided I had to slow her down until I could understand she was telling me of the Male and female Woodie in and on the box. There were 6 hatchlings a short time later. It really gave me good feeling, Mom was really excided and I like the woodie family
And like you the woodies did leave the pond after just a couple of days, I think they moved to the flooded woods near the pond. Much more cover there. I have also seen another duck with it's babies in the thick clover and wheat beside the pond. I think it was a female Mallard but could have been another type.

Tracy

Tracy