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.

Eastern Screech-owl Pellet Examination

Sometimes you find other things in Waterfowl Nest Boxes, for example, Eastern Screech-owl pellets.

Eastern Screech-owls (Otus asio) reside in the state of Connecticut throughout the year.  However, they are observed infrequently on the White Memorial Foundation property because we do not have large quantities of breeding habitat.  Eastern Screech-owls are most often observed at White Memorial in the autumn and winter months when these owls tend to move around more.   The owls are searching for habitat that offers food and adequate cover from the extreme weather and predators during the winter.We received at least two reports of Eastern Screech-owl observations on the property in December 2012 to January 2013 by birders who visited the property. You can review these observations at e-bird.

We found Eastern Screech-owl pellets while checking the Waterfowl Nest Boxes on the property this year.  The pellets were observed on top of the waterfowl nesting material and since waterfowl and Eastern Screech-owl breed at approximately the same time of year, it suggests that the owls used the boxes after the breeding season.  Learn how owls produce pellets.   A total of 3 boxes had pellets.  The nest box in Hammill Marsh (box #5573) had 4 pellets, #3236 in Pine Island Ditches had only 1 pellet, and the box at Ice House Marsh (#8054) had a total of 5 pellets.  Locate these boxes in the map at the bottom of the page.  The habitat around these boxes varies widely.  Hammill Marsh is primarily a herbaceous marsh north of Little Pond.  Pine Island Ditches are located north of Bissell Rd. and east of Duck Pond.  Pine Island refers to habitat because of the conifer trees and shrubby marsh but there are large herbaceous marshes to the north named Mallard Marsh.  Ice House Marsh is a small shrubby-herbaceous marsh surrounded by mature forest and a small mowed field where the old Ice House ruins are located.  This area is located north of Bantam Lake and east of North Shore Rd. 

We expected to see different species of prey because of this habitat variability. Will Hafey and Heather Williams, Wamogo Regional High School students, dissected the pellets to examine what these owls were eating while using the property.  The pellets found in Hammill Marsh and Pine Island Ditches had a total of 2 Meadow Voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus).  Meadow Voles commonly inhabit open heraceous habitats like fields, marshes, and even many people's backyards.  The Ice House Marsh nest box had pellets with the greatest abundance of prey items and two different species.  These pellets yielded at least 6 White-footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) and 1 Southern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys volans).  These prey species are abundant along forest edges and mature forests.  We can differentiate the prey species by examining the skull, teeth, and long bone characteristics.  We count and match mandibles and skulls, as well as long bones in the limbs and pelvic girdles to determine how many of each species were eaten.  Review the photos below to see the similarity in size and other characteristics of the evidence we use to determine this diet analysis of Eastern Screech-owls on the property.

Meadow Vole rostrum, mandible, and a couple long bones.

White-footed Mouse mandible and few long bones.

Southern Flying Squirrel long bones.

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.

Wood Duck Nest Box Inspections, 1/6/2012

Wood Duck male photo by Paul Fusco

from www.paulfuscowildlifephotography.com

Wood Duck Successful Nest, showing egg shells,

membranes that surrounded the chicks when they

hatched, and down from the mother; all on a bed of

wood shavings which we provided.

Photo by Dave Rosgen

This past Friday, 1/6/2012, Nick Miofsky and I (Dave Rosgen) checked 6 of our duck nest boxes for usage in 2011. We visited all 3 boxes at Duck Pond, the one in Pine Island Marsh, and both of the boxes in Mallard Marsh. All of these boxes had been moved from dangerous deepwater locations to safe shoreline locations by Scott Dayton and me last winter. Still, 80" of rain in 2011 put these formerly shoreline spots under as much as 2' of water. Because of all the mild weather that our area has experienced in the past month, much of this water was coated with less than 1" of ice. We were able to break through this ice with a potato hook as we walked to every box except the one on the south side of Duck Pond. The ice there was over 2" thick and held us as we walked on it. If we had fallen through it wouldn't have been a big deal since the water was only about 6" deep. Another major reason to move these boxes to shoreline locations (which was discussed in a few blog postings last winter) was to eliminate flooding of the boxes as a cause of nest failures. It worked! None of these boxes came anywhere close to being flooded, despite massive amounts of rain last year. Coupled with relatively mild weather last spring and our PVC pipe predator guards effectively stopping Raccoons and other predators from raiding the boxes, all 6 of these boxes were successful in fledging young. They were all occupied by Wood Ducks, and leftover eggshell membranes indicated that a total of 46 young hatched from them. Subtracting the one dead baby that we found among the nest material, that means that 45 young successfully fledged from these boxes. That's excellent! We also found a total of 14 unhatched eggs in these boxes. They were probably the first ones laid by the hens last April, and they probably froze on a few cold nights before she commenced incubation of the full clutch. Unfortunately, that's common, but it is offset by the large clutch sizes. More often than not, at least half the eggs in any given clutch hatch. In these boxes it was 77%. Last summer, Marcus Johannson and I checked the 5 shoreline boxes at Ongley Pond, and N. Shore, Pike, and Icehouse Marshes. All of them had Wood Duck nests, with 4 successfully fledging a total of 38 young. The fifth, at Icehouse Marsh, failed due to freezing of the entire clutch of 18 eggs. This probably was a dump nest where more than one female lays her eggs in a box, but none of them settle down to incubate the clutch. It might indicate a need for another box in that area. Despite this one failure we are very pleased that 10 out of the 11 boxes checked so far have been successful. That makes for an excellent success rate of 91% so far. Nicole Morin and I plan to check the last 4 boxes in safe locations this afternoon. Then it will be a matter of waiting until prolonged cold temperatures make ice around the rest of the 19 boxes less dangerous for us to walk on so that we can go out and check them. If that doesn't happen, we will have to use a canoe to get to them when the ice is gone. Somehow, we will make sure that they are checked before the 2012 nesting season begins in April. Stay tuned.

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.

Who's Out and About on the Day After the January 2011 Blizzard




Scott's First Time on Snowshoes!
He took to it like a duck to water.

  Scott Dayton and I (Jamie) were out on the property checking waterfowl nest-boxes in the 18+ inches of snow.  Snowshoeing was the only way to travel in these conditions.  Although snowshoeing is fun, it can be really hard work when you are the first to break the trail through deep powdery snow.  It reminded me how difficult it would be for some of our larger mammals to travel through the same conditions.  Some animals have adaptations that are adapted for these conditions such as the large feet of cottontail rabbits and snowshoe hares so that they can travel on top of the snow.  Moose is the only large mammal that inhabits northern CT that can walk through deep snow with their long legs.  Bobcats, coyotes, fisher, and white-tailed deer, on the other hand, are hindered by these conditions.  I expect to see more of their tracks and trails as soon as the snow compacts, but so far we found no evidence that they were moving around much today.  These mammals rely on other adaptations to survive when they can not move very far to find food.  They carry a layer of fat on their bodies that insulates and provides energy that maintains bodily functions.  These adaptations are good for short periods of time and each of them use many other behavioral and physiological adaptations to survive the winters especially during these dramatic environmental conditions.  Some move into the sunlight to warm their bodies, others reduce their metabolism so that they don't need to find as much food when it is difficult to find, and others sleep through the extreme winter climate.  The only mammal sign that we observed today were weasel tracks in various marshes.  The weasels bounded between shrub stands and dove under the snow to probably elude predation and to gain access to the subnivian (below snow) layer where all of the small mammals (mice, voles, shrews, moles, etc.) inhabit.



Weasel Tracks at Little Pond Boardwalk



Weasel Tracks at Little Pond Boardwalk Another Perspective