Dr. Luke, I'm so glad you are doing well in this Covid situation and I hope you have some time to relax and watch the wildlife (and stay healthy). You are so fortunate to have successful nesting and brooding right outside your window. I'm trying hard but failed again this year.
I have 2 very nice wood duck houses, very warm and soft wood shavings in it and no takers. Might as well give them to someone else who can be more successful... This will be the 2nd year of waiting in vain. I did see a wood duck couple last week Monday come in for a look around. They were high up in a big oak tree for a while. They did not land in or around the pond like they have done in years past. In years past they even would swim around, rest on shore and walk around a bit but not this year. We do have a mallard pair with a nest under a pine tree but the mallard pair were not around when the wood ducks stopped by.
I'm sure our dog may be part of the problem, do you have a dog and do the ducks mind? Our dog is kept from the pond edge by his electric fence underground but perhaps his presence and patrolling is unsettling? I also know with the kids home from school there is a lot more general traffic in the yard and my son's very loud and annoying gokart (minus a muffler because it goes faster and backfires more that way) going down the trail nearby was precisely poor timing for the poor wood ducks.
It is too late now. I may have to try to put a duck house deeper in the woods away from the pond to see if that gives them more privacy, or like you, I may have to put the pole right IN the pond. What keeps me from that is we like to ice skate as long as we can and the pole would be in the way. The ducks scout the pond in the fall I'm told and if I install the pole at ice out in the spring I'm not sure the duck house will be around long enough for them to accept it?
But you sharing pictures and the webcam especially is really appreciated!!
