Dec 31, 2016 5 min read

Ducks Unlimited magazine suggested it as a waterfowl hunter’s winter project. I viewed it as a New Year’s resolution — to put up a wood duck box.

I didn’t even need to build the box. Several years ago, I’d found one in disrepair but basically intact, lying useless and half-buried in mud along a local stream. I levered the box out of the silt with a stout branch and lugged it back to my truck. From there it went into what we still refer to as “Aaron’s cabin,” a crude shed I’d built for our son’s outdoor play as a young boy, where it has remained ever since despite my annual good intention to erect it in some ideal spot.

This so-far unfulfilled objective stems from my recent attraction to wood ducks. We never hunted ducks when I was first exposed to the outdoors, which is understandable. Ours is not a prime waterfowl region. We don’t have much swamp, marsh or classic wetland. That’s where wood ducks come in. As this column has indicated before, wood ducks are different. They love to live along streams where the flow winds sluggishly among our forested hills. I started hunting them in such places in a quest for something novel. I don’t often bag one but just seeing their brilliant plumage and hearing their wild squealing call is reward enough.

Wood ducks were once the most abundant waterfowl species across the eastern third of North America. The native forests offered these cavity-nesting birds countless suitable “tree holes” in which the hens lay their eggs. Wood ducks can’t excavate cavities so they depend on pre-existing holes for nest sites.

The hen selects a cavity she likes, then lays one egg each day until the clutch of 10 to 14 eggs is complete. She incubates the clutch with her own body warmth for about a month. Clutches hatch around here as early as late April or early May. One day after hatching the hen calls them to climb out of the nest cavity, plummet to the water or ground below, and begin life in the nearest available habitat–a stream or pond with slack current and dense woody vegetation. Even though the eggs were laid over a two-week span, they all hatch at the same time. This amazing adaptation allows the brood to all leave the nest together under the care of the hen.

When nearly all the old-growth woodland was cut or cleared across eastern America in the 19th century, wood duck numbers crashed because the birds found few suitable tree cavities. There are still some natural nest sites, of course, but artificial nest boxes have proven a real boost to the wood duck’s future. Wood ducks were nearly extinct by the dawn of the 20th century. Today, partly because of next boxes, they are once again abundant.

The use of artificial next boxes began in 1937, when the U.S. Biological Survey (now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) erected 700 boxes as an experiment in an Illinois swamp. Over half the boxes were used immediately by wood ducks and conservationists from Canada to the deep South have been fixing the structures to trees and metal poles ever since. The Connecticut Wildlife Division, for example, monitors 600 nest boxes spread across state-owned wetlands. Wood ducks nest in about half the boxes every spring, with nesting success reported at 80-90 percent.

I don’t have to build a box to complete my resolution, which is good because I’m a poor carpenter. But if you want to help wood ducks in this way, you don’t really need a lot of woodworking skill. The birds are forgiving in their requirements. The only rules are to use rough-cut lumber when possible (it more closely resembles natural nest sites), never paint the inside of the box, tack some screen or wire mesh on the inside surface below the hole (this allows the ducklings to climb out), and place several inches of clean wood chips or shavings at the bottom (ducks never carry nesting material into the cavities).

Clear, straightforward plans for wood duck boxes are available on Ducks Unlimited’s website at www.ducks.org. At the main page, just type “wood duck nest box plans” into the search box.

You can also get plans (and motivation) on the website of Outdoor News, publisher of outdoor newspapers in all the Great Lakes states including Pennsylvania. Outdoor News runs a “Wood Duck Challenge” that encourages young people to get involved in building and placing wood duck boxes in local wetlands. For details visit www.outdoornews.com and search for “Wood Duck Challenge.”

Both these sites are helpful because they take you through the entire process, from building the box to placement and maintenance, which is important.

I have a great site in mind for my found box. All I need to do is figure out how I can drive an aluminum pole into the pond-bottom without capsizing a canoe.