Outdoor Mysteries
The Once Scarce Wood Duck Has Made a Tremendous Comeback BY CHRIS ZIMMERMAN
Slightly smaller than a mallard, drake wood ducks may be the prettiest of all waterfowl.
Ready for occupancy. Nest boxes over water are ideal because the ducklings hop out of the hole to a splash landing.
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IT IS MID-FEBRUARY as I write this. Snow is piled high. Our lakes; frozen and still. Seems like every living creature that hasn’t gone south for the winter is scrounging for sustenance and counting down the days until spring finally arrives. Myself included. What better way to wait away the winter days than to build a nest box for one of North America’s prettiest ducks: the wood duck. Prized for their beautiful feathers and noted for their fine table fare, wood ducks haven’t always been as plentiful as they are now. Mike Brasher is a waterfowl scientist with Ducks Unlimited in Memphis, Tennessee. “At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, wood ducks were almost hunted to extinction,” he said. “When the federal government took control of migratory hunting seasons back in 1918, one of the first things they did was close wood duck hunting. During the 20’s and 30’s, there was no open season on wood ducks, but thankfully they have made a tremendous comeback. Today, they’re one of the most widely distributed ducks east of the Mississippi.” Wood duck numbers have increased in part because of habitat improvements. Mature forests lend themselves to wood duck production because broken limbs lead to hollow trunks that are ideal for nesting wood ducks. According to Brasher, wood ducks are secondary cavity nesters, which means, they are reliant T h e C a n ad i a n L a ke r
on something else making their nesting site for them. “They’ll use old woodpecker holes to access a hollow tree trunk,” Brasher said, “and the hens don’t take material to their nest like ground nesting ducks do. They’re stuck with what’s inside the cavity.” Wood duck hens are not as colorful as their male counterparts. They’re rather drab in color, with a faint white ring around their eyes. On average, 10-12 cream-colored eggs are laid in a nest lined with the hen’s downy feathers. Incubation takes about 28 days before the chicks emerge from the egg, crawl up the edge of the cavity, and drop out of the nest entrance. Several years ago, a hen wood duck pulled off a successful brood by nesting in an old maple tree in front of my office in downtown Shepherd. Although we congratulated her on hatching 14, ping-pong-ball sized ducklings, we had to question her choice in nest sites. After all, downtown Shepherd isn’t exactly a waterfowl haven. My office is blocks away from the nearest waterway. I’m not sure what happened to Mrs. Woodie and her clutch of little ones, but I can only imagine how she dodged traffic, curious onlookers, backyard fences, cats, dogs and a host of other perils on her way to the Salt Creek on the east edge of Shepherd. The better choice of nesting sites would be Canadian Lakes. Marshes, water courses, cattails - all desirable habitat for ducks. There is no shortage of mature trees in the area. Not every tree is a possible nest site, but every nesting site for wood ducks has to be some sort of cavity. Brasher said there are two important parts to installing your own wood duck house. “The house should be at least four feet off the
