Wood Duck Nesting Boxes
Wood Duck Boxes
RRGC installed four wood duck nesting boxes on Whitcomb Island on February 9, 2022 to partially mitigate loss of nesting sites in trees that were burned in a September 2020 fire. Annual maintenance on the 515 RRGC wood duck nesting boxes is progressing well. As of April 22nd we are 78% complete with cleaning out old nesting material, documenting last years usage, and installing new nesting wood shavings. The good progress we believe is due to great volunteers and the retrofitted box design of a side inspection door on a shorter pole. We have seen some increased abandonment of eggs which may be the result of the extremely hot weather during the latter part of the nesting period. About 50% of boxes have been used by wood ducks. Some areas have western screech owls utilizing the boxes, with 37 owls captured this year so far. Wood ducks will start exploring boxes soon and nesting will start in early April.
Wood Duck videos off YouTube are available further down this page.
Wood Duck Project - Volunteers have been busy with annual maintenance on the 515 RRGC wood duck nest boxes in the Tri-Cities area. As of 2021, February 17th, 57.5 % of the boxes had been checked , documented usage from last nesting, old nesting material removed, and fresh nesting wood shaving installed. In some cases, repairs are made or new side access doors installed. The shorter poles and side access doors have allowed volunteers to complete more boxes per day and will expedite nesting checks and hen banding in May and June. Boxes remaining to be checked, as weather allows, are boxes checked with a boat on the Yakima River from Benton City to the mouth plus Sunnyside/Grandview and a few at Barker Ranch. COVID restrictions have limited volunteer involvement, but individuals that are interested can contact Dale Schielke 375-0183. Thanks to recent volunteers John Merk, Blaine Schwartz, Mark Kerns, Mac Ryan, and Dale Schielke.
4/28/2020
The hatch has started on Box 393 with hen 1045-30156. The "jump" should be tomorrow morning. I have added an outside camera with a different perspective which we hope will catch the ducklings leaving the hole and follow them to the ground. Currently we are broadcasting 2 additional boxes on this same feed, but I will change to show just box 393 later today.
Thanks for watching
Dale Schielke
RRGC Wood Duck Project Coordinator
Dale Schielke reported that the geo-locator bands are now on hand. Dale is now testing via a trial run connecting to You Tube for broadcasting. The advantage may be that the broadcast can incorporate sound. Wood duck box clean-out has started and will continue until done. All of the work normally done in February was postponed due to the snow accumulation. Dale reports that the effort is now over 75%. He expects to start banding hens with the geolocators in April 2019.
John Pfeiffer Cleaning Wood Duck Nest
Mike Estes with Screech Owl
Dale Schielke With Two Screech Owls
June 2018- Dale Schielke has provided numerous photos, videos and live video feeds for several wood duck boxes. Dale has moved video cameras from different boxes as the ducklings have made the jump in order to keep the feed current. Per the information provided by Dale, the Wood Duck hatch started approximately the 28th of April. Since then, there has been a succession of recorded hatches that have been shared with the world through the live feed via ustream.tv/channel/rrgc-duckam.
Within 24 hours of an entire clutch of eggs being hatched, the ducklings will make the jump. Dale placed cameras at several locations to record both the hatch and the jump. An amazing sequence and an outstanding effort by Dale the the other volunteers that assisted in addition to the schools and home schoolers that got involved.
In addition to wood ducks, there are screech owls, kestrals and now merganzers using the boxes.
Wood Ducks
Wood Ducks
Hen 30102 May 19, 2019
Hen 34677 2019
Hen 30156 2019
Dale in Work Boat
Submitted by Mike Estes
Owl With Lunch
Submitted by Dale Schielke
April 2018-Dale Schielke reported that as of the 19th of March 98% of wood duck boxes had been checked. This amounts to approximately 442 boxes that have been checked and cleaned for the spring hatch. Dale has made several presentations for the Wood Duck Boxes to Libby Middle School students as well as home schooled students. The presentation consists of a classroom lecture, hands on building of several boxes and the installation of the boxes in the field.