I'm intrigued by this wood duck thing.. I too was a hard core waterfowler. Today I find it more important to protect the reproduction cycle than kill.. part of growing up I guess. I have woodies every year (don't say it Rod..) and I never gave much thought to building boxes because we literally have no trees here other than windbreaks, but if they are going to build a nest under my dock I guess I don't need boxes. Still think it would be cool though.
When you were a hard core waterfowler, I assume you were living in an area with very few trees located near the edges of ponds, marshes, and creeks, yet you still saw a decent number of wood ducks.
That was kind of the reason for my original post. How did wood ducks maintain viable populations in areas where the only natural habitat is cottonwoods along the creeks? Do they have to co-exist with woodpeckers and take over their tree cavities after they are abandoned? Can the wood ducks defend ground nests against predators sufficiently to sustain the population?
I hoped I would get some informative answers, because we do have lots of people on PB that work hard to protect the reproduction cycle of lots of different species!
