In the fall of 2008, committee members contacted Wake County Parks, Recreation and Open Space seeking a local protected area to start the nesting project.  Committee members soon met with Tim Lisk, Wake County Open Space Planner, to discuss using Wake County Open Space land for the project.  Mr. Lisk obliged the request and allowed Delta to use Open Space property located on Marks Creek at its intersection of Turnipseed Road.  The property runs along Marks Creek for approximately ½ mile.  The creek has several beaver ponds with wooded and open flooded areas.  These site features made it prime wood duck nesting habitat.  On February 26, 2009, a legal agreement was made between Wake County Parks, Recreation and Open Space and the Wake County Chapter of Delta Waterfowl to use the Marks Creek site for the wood duck nesting project.  The first year of this project was conducted on a small scale and consisted of only 11 boxes.  The Wake County Chapter of Delta Waterfowl plans to expand this to project to different local sites over the next several years.

The Wake County Chapter of Delta Waterfowl would like to acknowledge and thank Wake County Parks, Recreation and Open Space for allowing the use of the Marks Creek/Turnipseed Road Site for this project.  Also, a special recognition goes to Tim Lisk for coordinating, planning and “putting-up with” the details and participants of this project.  Box #1 of this project has been named in honor of Mr. Lisk.

The Wake County Chapter of Delta Waterfowl would also like to acknowledge and thank Dr. F. Eugene Hester for his support, expert technical advice, monetary support and donation of materials (brass name tags and prothonatory warbler nesting cans).

The Wake County Chapter of Delta Waterfowl would also like to acknowledge and thank the following chapter members for their participation in this project:

                        Brian Wokasch                Bryan Bobbitt

                        John Lowdermilk            Kevin Averette

                        Brad Hasty                      Jerry Richardson

                        Paul Wiley                       Judson Ammons

Box Checks and Maintenance

To effectively track nest box use throughout the wood duck nesting season, regular box checks were conducted.  The checks were conducted in two-person teams and scheduled to take place every two weeks.  Each box was numbered and information for each box was tallied separately.  During these checks, the following information was recorded:

·         The presence and number of eggs

·         Egg color and description

o   Wood duck eggs are light beige in color, slightly smaller and more round than chicken eggs

o   Bad (or dead) eggs will turn a bluish color

o   Sometimes other birds will nest in the box other than wood ducks: Hooded Mergansers, Screech Owls, Great Crested Flycatcher

·         “Were the eggs warm or cold?”

o   Eggs will be at ambient temperatures during egg laying period, but warm during incubation periods

o   Knowing relative egg temperature helps discern what stage the nest is at or if the hen has abandoned the nest

·         If evidence of hatched eggs, how many eggs appeared to hatch

o   Counting the number of egg shells left behind gives evidence of the number of successful hatches

o   Sometimes there will be un-hatched eggs left behind or dead fledglings that were not able to leave the box

• Number of fledglings
  • Sometimes persons checking the box are lucky enough to find hatched fledglings that have not left the box
  • Fledglings only stay in the box 24 hours before climbing out of the box
• Known Inhabitants
  • Any number of inhabitants can occupy these boxes other than wood ducks: squirrels, wasps, other nesting birds
  • Predators such as black snakes and raccoons sometimes get around the predator guard

Other observations are noted such as indications of predation, box condition, repairs needed, or the presence of new nest without eggs.  Each nesting box is cleaned of anything other than cedar chips after the nesting season and rechecked before the next season begins.

Results

The 2009 wood duck nesting season was a relative success.  Being the first year the nesting boxes were available for use, it was anticipated that occupancy might be low.  In theory, it takes a couple of years to achieve a high occupancy rate. Over time the local wood ducks and the previous year’s fledglings would return to the same boxes, thus increasing the number of nesting hens in the area every year.   Contrary to this theory, the boxes experienced a relatively high occupancy rate.  The following information highlights this year’s successful hatches:

• 6 of 11 boxes housed at least one successful nests, with box number 7 having two successful nests (54% occupancy rate)
• All combined, there were 7 successful nests producing 91 eggs
•  87 of 91 eggs laid hatched and the fledglings safely left the box (96% successful hatch rate)
• Only 4% of the eggs laid did not hatch or died after hatching
• There were no occurrences of predation

The following graph shows box usage over time: