Waterfowl Nest Box Monitoring

Waterfowl Nest Boxes are checked after the breeding season to monitor productivity and for maintenance.

We took advantage of the short window of adequate ice coverage to check our waterfowl nest boxes on the property.  We want to thank our volunteers who are supporting us with this effort during the brief window of opportunity.  Nicki Hall, Shannon Smith, and Anthony Cianciolo were a big help this season.  Nest producitivity was lower than average which is likely due to the cooler and wetter breeding season.  If we get another stretch of time when ice coverage is adequate for safely approaching the boxes, then several boxes require some minor maintanence.  We also need to re-install one nest box at Heron Pond which fell over this past summer due to broken post. 

Waterfowl Nest Boxes Check for 2017

(l to r) Jared Franklin, Rachelle Talbot, and Ireland Kennedy check waterfowl nest boxes
 to monitor seasonal productivity and maintenance needs.

White Memorial checks waterfowl nest boxes annually to monitor the breeding productivity of wood duck and hooded mergansers on the property.  Waterfowl populations have rebounded since the early 20th century due to increasing nest sites by installing nest boxes, protecting wetland habitats, and regulating harvesting by creating and enforcing wildlife conservation laws.  Waterfowl nest boxes are installed in or very close to wetland habitats on the Foundation property and are used briefly by the ducks for laying and incubating eggs.  Ducks and mergansers hatch fully feathered with their eyes open and vacate the boxes very soon after they hatch.  White Memorial has a total of 28 nest boxes on the property, of which we were able to safely check 27 boxes.  A total of 20 boxes were used by waterfowl which were able to fledge a total of 102 chicks.  Wood shavings are used as nesting materials and are replaced each year.

Waterfowl Boxes

So we had some maintenance that we needed to catch up on. This maintenance isn't too simple in terms of actually getting to the location and it requires us to take the truck out on to the trails. And once you actually get to the spot you either have to go by canoe or be ready to throw on a pair of waders.

One of our waterfowl nest boxes located on Heron Pond

We have waterfowl nest boxes installed around the property. These boxes are important to ducks who use them to make their nests. The most common ducks to visit the boxes are Wood Ducks and Hooded Mergansers. Occasionally, Great Crested Flycatchers can be found as well. 

The problem is, these ducks aren't the only creatures out there interested in said boxes. Predators like raccoon's often attempt to climb up these nestboxes in order find food at the expense of the ducklings. This is when predator guards come in handy. They are meant to act as a non-climbable surface and consist of a PVC pipe that is attached to the nestbox. This would be the same kind of predator guard that we use on our bluebird boxes. The screws holding the predator guards to the boxes can end up rusting, leaving the PVC pipe to drop into the murky water below. We simply have to get to the box, fish out the PVC, and screw them back in. If the PVC is screwed back in and there doesn't seem to be any other problems, the box will be ready for the next season.

Waterfowl Nest Boxes 2013 Breeding Season

Waterfowl Nest Boxes are checked every winter
to review success of each breeding season

We've nearly completed reviewing the breeding success of waterfowl that use the nest boxes located throughout the property.  We currently have a total of 25 nest boxes installed and functioning within normal parameters.  Breeding was attempted in 21 of the nest boxes.  Nicki Hall and Alyce Walker volunteered a great deal of time this year to aid in this process.  Ice conditions were suitable for a short period of time but we managed to reach the boxes that require more ice early on and then were able to access the other boxes soon afterwards.  We had only 8 hooded merganser eggs hatch and fledged, all of which were found in one nest box.  This box was in a pond over fairly deep water.  The wood ducks appeared to fare better with a total of 145 fledged ducklings.  This past spring season was very dry!  Several observations indicate that the drought impacted the waterfowl that use the nest boxes.  Several of the boxes were usurped by white-footed mice and grey squirrels, which rarely happens because the nest boxes are located in regularly flooded marshes and ponds.  The squirrels and mice were able to access the boxes while the marshes were dry for such a long period of time this spring.  We had one great-crested flycatcher nest in one box this season.  We also had 3 boxes with eastern screech owl pellets, indicating that this rarely observed small owl at least visited the property probably during their autumn migration.

Waterfowl Nest Box Monitoring Continues

James Fischer, WMCC Research Director, checks the waterfowl nest box
at Beaver Pond to monitor the waterfowl breeding season productivity.
Notice the mink tracks that travel in front of the nest box from left to right.
Photo by Abby Conroy

We continue to take advantage of the short window of adequate ice covering the water under our waterfowl nest boxes on the property.  We want to thank our volunteers who are supporting us with this effort during the brief window of opportunity.  Abby Conroy, Marie Kennedy, Nick Miofsky (CT DEEP EnCon Police Officer), and Susan Spencer have made special efforts this winter season.  Marcus Johansson helped us with several boxes that can be approached via land in the autumn.

Bantam Lake Finally Freezes Over!

Bantam Lake's Outlet as viewed from the

Pt. Folly observation platform in a photo

taken by Ashley Hayes 5 weeks before the rest

of the Lake iced-over on 1/16/2012

Bald Eagles, photo by Paul Fusco from

www.paulfuscowildlifephotography.com

Canada Geese photo by Bob Stanowski

Mallard photo from www.wikimedia.org

Northern Pintail photo by Tom Munson

from www.fishandgameidaho.gov

As of yesterday, 1/16/2012, most of Bantam Lake had frozen over. This is amazingly late! As usual, the Outlet and the Bantam River downstream all the way to Rt. 209 has remained ice-free. This is typical except in the most severely cold winters. Though much of the waterfowl that had been seen daily at the Lake so far this winter left in the past 3 days, huge numbers of Canada Geese and Mallards, along with fair numbers of American Black Ducks and Ring-necked Ducks, 3 Lesser Scaup, a Northern Pintail, 3 Hooded Mergansers, and at least 101 American Coots have remained in the open water of the Outlet. The geese and Mallards have fallen into a winter activity mode of foraging in cornfields in Litchfield, Morris, Bethlehem, Warren, and Goshen by day, and roosting at the Outlet from sunset until sunrise. Thus, it is best to look for these birds either from the N. Shore Rd. bridge over the Bantam River or the Pt. Folly observation platform between 7 and 8 a.m. or 4 and 5:30 p.m. Any other time of day will produce a lot less. This has been highlighted by our counts Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The morning observations, made by Mike Doyle, produced counts of 725, 500, 800, and 800 Canada Geese and 3, 52, 5, and 13 Mallards for these 4 days, respectively. John Eykelhoff didn't find more than 65 Canada Geese and 10 Mallards on his noon-time visits here these days. However, Jim Kandefer and I counted 1,075 Canada Geese and 500 Mallards coming in to roost here between 4:30 p.m. and dark on Monday, and Jim Dugan and I counted 675 Canada Geese and 175 Mallards doing the same thing during the same time frame on Wednesday. No evening counts were conducted on Tuesday or Thursday. During both evening counts, more geese and Mallards flew in from the north than from the south. We didn't see any fly in from the east or west. It doesn't appear as though many of the 65 American Black Ducks that we saw come in Wednesday evening stayed, as only 9 were counted at the Outlet the next morning. We haven't been able to relocate the hen Northern Pintail that we saw Monday evening. The numbers of American Coots and Lesser Scaup have been dropping steadily all week as these birds exit the area. Greg Hanisek saw a Greater Scaup there Wednesday mid-morning, but we haven't been able to find that bird again. Some birds do only drop in to rest here for a few hours before moving on. As many as 4 Bald Eagles hanging around the Outlet at various times has also been a disincentive for some birds to stay here. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the winter brings.

Wood Duck Update

Wood Duck male at White Memorial

photographed by Paul Fusco New and improved duck nest box placement at White Memorial's Mallard Marsh photographed by Dave Rosgen

Wood Ducks have been returning to northwest Connecticut in excellent numbers over the past 3 weeks. The past few days have seen a significant increase in their numbers. Last Thursday, 3/24, we counted 12 of these birds foraging along the shore of Bantam Lake's N. Bay by Litchfield Town Beach. Their numbers nearly doubled to 23 there 2 days later, and increased to 28 on the 28th. We counted 14 more a few minutes later that same day at Pt. Folly. We also counted 9 at Little Pond on the 24th, 6 in the Bantam River near Pike Marsh on the 29th, and 5 around the Museum Area on the 30th. Smaller numbers of these birds have been seen almost daily in various parts of the Property this month. We have no way of knowing how many of these Woodies are likely to stay and breed versus those continuing to migrate on to other breeding grounds. What we do know is that White Memorial typically hosts an average of 20 pairs of Wood Ducks and 7 pairs of Hooded Mergansers in its nest boxes. A few more of these birds nest in natural cavities in trees. This year we have 30 nest boxes out and available for these birds to use, and I hope to increase that number to 35 before the nesting season ends. For the past several years the number of boxes available for use has been around 32, 33, or 34. Massive flooding during the spring of last year really took a toll on the boxes in addition to causing many nest failures. A couple of blog posts earlier in the year detailed the work that our great intern, Scott Dayton, did to help us rebuild or replace many of the damaged boxes. An integral part of this work was to move 16 of the boxes to higher ground at the edges of our wetlands and to mount them onto longer poles so that they would remain above the floodwaters. So far the flooding this spring hasn't come anywhere close to threatening these boxes, even though the water was very deep in places. The boxes at Little Pond, which we haven't had a chance to move yet, were inundated. The photo above this posting shows one of the relocated and remounted nest boxes on its long pole. The bottom of the box is 5' 6" off the ground. Floodwaters never got closer than 3' to it. Also notice the 3' 4" length of 6" diameter PVC pipe around the pole, fastened immediately under the box, that serves as a very effective predator guard. We've already seen Wood Ducks and Hooded Mergansers around several of these boxes and are confident that they will nest in them. Stay tuned.

Recent waterfowl surveys at Bantam Lake

Greater White-fronted Goose photo from

dfw.state.or.us via Google Images

Male Wood Duck photo by Bob Stanowski

Male Hooded Merganser photo by

Bob Stanowski

Waterfowl surveying at Bantam Lake's Outlet, which is on N. Shore Rd., has produced an increasing number and variety of birds this week. On Tuesday, 3/8, I focused on counting ducks and geese as they came in to roost between 5:15 p.m. and dark. Most of these birds had spent the day feeding in cornfields around Litchfield, Morris, Bethlehem, and Warren. Among the 1,650 Canada Geese that came in were a Greater White-fronted Goose, a Canada x Greater White-fronted Goose Hybrid, and a Cackling Goose. These are all quite rare in Connecticut. Also seen were 3 Wood Ducks, 45 American Black Ducks, 100 Mallards, 14 Ring-necked Ducks, 26 Hooded Mergansers, and 25 Common Mergansers. Things were a little different when I conducted the survey between 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Friday, 3/11. Most of the Canada Geese were probably still out feeding in area cornfields, as only 325 were counted at the Outlet. These were mostly feeding in the flooded bottomland downstream from the Outlet bridge. With them were 16 Wood Ducks, 185 Mallards, and 1 American Black Duck. The open water closer to Pt. Folly held our first Bufflehead and 2 Common Goldeneyes of 2011. Also there, were 34 Ring-necked Ducks, 5 Hooded Mergansers, and 17 Common Mergansers. Since the bulk of the northbound spring waterfowl migration occurs in March it will be interesting to see what surveys every few days turn up. These will be expanded as the month progresses (and as ice diminishes) to include all of Bantam Lake, plus Little and Cemetery Ponds. Any help with this effort from our readership would be much-appreciated.