# UWA Wood Duck Nesting Day Follow Up.



## Donttreadonme (Sep 11, 2007)

A few of us went out Friday afternoon to follow up on the boxes that we placed a couple weeks ago. We were elated with our findings. Many of the boxes show evidence of birds using them in preparation for laying eggs. We have several boxes in use with 51 laid eggs currently being sat. We are confident that we will see this number grow over the coming weeks. Cache Valley is full of perfect Wood Duck habitat that, with our help, will produce great numbers of these incredible birds. We honestly feel like if we had 20 boxes to place we would want 20 more. The more looking around we do the more woodies we are finding. The only thing that is slowing us down is number of boxes. If any of you can donate money or wood we will take you up on it. If it is $5, $10, $20, $100, $1000 we can use it all. 100% of this money is going to build wooden wood duck boxes and buy plastic ones. The Utah Waterfowl Association has funded nearly every penny we have spent so far. We have received donations from a few generous folks that has helped us out a lot. We want to make sure those of you who have donated know that we appreciate your help.

If you ever want to go see some of what we are doing please contact me and I will gladly show you around. If you know where any woodies are that could use some boxes, let me know and I will do all I can to get you boxes to place. Just ask ntrl_brn_rebel. He contacted me last week about some woodies and we had two boxes up by Friday. I guarantee that the first time he see's those boxes in use he will be calling me again.

Here are a few pictures Carl Taylor sent me from Friday. He also threw in the picture of the owl because on occasion other birds have found these boxes to their satisfaction and nested in them. I will be adding more pictures as I receive them.








































Send any donations to:

Utah Waterfowl Assn.
C/O 210 North 400 East
Centerville, UT 84014

Please note on the check that it is for the Wild Over Woodies (WOW) program.

Again thank you very much to those who have already donated time, money, and/or supplies.


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) :mrgreen: :mrgreen: ..... :!: 

SAAAWWWEEEEEET!

has Jim had any success with his project?


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## ntrl_brn_rebel (Sep 7, 2007)

I for one, was totally blown away. It sounded great.........but to see it first hand was completley unreal. 

I sure hope if anyone can spare a few dimes they would donate to this project. This is one hell of a way to give back!! 

My hat is off to Carl, Joel, Jim and anyone else involved. What an awesome project!!


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## deadicated1 (Mar 17, 2008)

good work guys. i have never given time or money, but i really am going to start this year. its really neat to see the boxes being used, and see your work start to pay off. and, of course, for selfich reasons, maybe one of those birds will work its way south to my neck of the woods  we'll see. neat post. check's in the mail


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## captain (Nov 18, 2007)

Longun,

We haven't had anything use any of the boxes that we put up last yearyet. Though there were some woodies holding in the area last time I was down there. I am going to try putting up some wooden boxes and see if that makes a different. There is a possibility that where the woodies in my area are not as familiar with boxes that they are shying away from the plastic. Hopefully they will feel as though the wooden boxes are a little more natural. As I told you in the past, if I can get one hen to use the dozen boxes we put up I would consider our efforts a success. I have also been activley involved in getting this project going in Cache valley. The possibilities of the number of woodies Cache valley could produce is incredible. I hope everyone on this forum can all open thier pocket books and sacrifice a little time to get this project going. 
Thanks, 

Captain


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## MudInBlood (Apr 10, 2008)

Pretty cool to see the ducks using the boxes!!


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## deadicated1 (Mar 17, 2008)

nice pic!! that equals how many woodies i have seen in utah


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## steven (Sep 8, 2007)

thats cool nice work guys. yeah i think everyone should help as much i they can this program is way cool and could really help the wood ducks all over. i just found a spot that has 10 wood ducks in it. that we are going to put boxes in.


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

Wow that is amazing. I hope everything keeps moving forward. You guys are doing a great job. I will try to send you some money soon. I hope you post this on the waterfowl only forums as they get a lot of traffic.


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

captain said:


> Longun,
> 
> We haven't had anything use any of the boxes that we put up last yearyet. Though there were some woodies holding in the area last time I was down there. I am going to try putting up some wooden boxes and see if that makes a different. There is a possibility that where the woodies in my area are not as familiar with boxes that they are shying away from the plastic. Hopefully they will feel as though the wooden boxes are a little more natural. As I told you in the past, if I can get one hen to use the dozen boxes we put up I would consider our efforts a success. I have also been activley involved in getting this project going in Cache valley. The possibilities of the number of woodies Cache valley could produce is incredible. I hope everyone on this forum can all open thier pocket books and sacrifice a little time to get this project going.
> Thanks,
> ...


Wow...not one sitting hen in those?? thats somewhat disheartening with the success that Carl has had elsewhere. very strange...although the cache is sounding VERY PROMISING! 8)

i still have this box that i built last season...ready to go on a 10' section of 4" pvc. how do i get it to you???? also quite incidently, i have ran into approx 10 sheets of 3/4 plywood. is this suitable to build the boxes out of? if it is send me some plans and ill put the kid to work!

*Update: my hardware contact has pledged more tubing and clamps when/if needed.*


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

c-mon folks a few years of hard work and this...










could be a very real thing for all of us 8)

i killed this fine looking bird last season, and it will be my last.


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## deadicated1 (Mar 17, 2008)

good looking woodie 8) i would give my left for a bird like that. its always nice to see hard work pay off


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## Donttreadonme (Sep 11, 2007)

deadicated1 said:


> good looking woodie 8) i would give my left for a bird like that. its always nice to see hard work pay off


Deadicated1, I know there are some guys in your neck of the woods that are looking to do the same thing we are doing up here. Contact Carl Taylor ([email protected]) and let him know you want to get involved. He will get you the names of those who are trying to get the ball rolling down there.

I want to see huntable populations of woodies in this state. I truely believe that it is possible in the near future with this project.


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

we're off to a great start!!!!!! 8) 8)


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## scattergunner (Sep 21, 2007)

I'm a little out of the loop on this stuff lately, but has anyone done or given thought to doing a similar WOW project on the lower and maybe middle stretches of the Weber?


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## Donttreadonme (Sep 11, 2007)

I went out on my lunch hour to check a couple boxes and the box we placed last Tuesday already has a bird in it. It was high enough I couldn't open the box to take a picture of the eggs, nor was I fast enough to get a picture of her coming out. This is what the picture through the door looks like though. There are a couple down feathers that if you know what you are looking for you can see. That means there are eggs under the wood shavings.










I did managed to snap this picture. Sorry it is so blury.










And this is a box I put up along the bear river Saturday. Hopefully it will soon have eggs as well.


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## dkhntrdstn (Sep 7, 2007)

Nice job there Joel keep the good work up.


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## deadicated1 (Mar 17, 2008)

so im just curious- not skeptical, just curious. are there always a lot of wood ducks each year in utah, and they just dont have places to nest, or what? just having boxes for them doesn't necessarily mean they will be here and use them, right? i hope that makes sense


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## Donttreadonme (Sep 11, 2007)

deadicated1 said:


> so im just curious- not skeptical, just curious. are there always a lot of wood ducks each year in utah, and they just dont have places to nest, or what? just having boxes for them doesn't necessarily mean they will be here and use them, right? i hope that makes sense


What placing boxes does, is give them a safe place to nest. We have areas containing a lot of wood ducks here in Utah. With the combination of hunters killing every one they see and predation, the numbers have just stayed about the same.

With the nesting program we are able to provide a safe nesting structure greatly increasing the chance for more birds. It also gives us an opportunity to put some sceince behind it and hopefully in the future we can establish if they just nest here and migrate or if they stay here all year.

The nesting program is still fairly young here but great things are possible. Carl has some numbers from Nevada and California that are amazing. We are trying to build this program similar to what they have done, in hopes of similar results.


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## deadicated1 (Mar 17, 2008)

cool. thanks for the info. i missed carl's call today, but ill call him after work and get more info. i never realized there were many that nest here.


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## Donttreadonme (Sep 11, 2007)

Today I was able to run back down and get a picture of the eggs and the box they are in. 7 eggs! Wahoooo![attachment=1:1lqffmcw]new_eggs_04-30-2008.JPG[/attachment:1lqffmcw]
[attachment=1:1lqffmcw]new_eggs_04-30-2008.JPG[/attachment:1lqffmcw]


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## captain (Nov 18, 2007)

I made it out today to check the rest of our Cache valley boxes, and was very pleased with what I found. The first box that I went to had seven eggs in it. I also found a box that already has some chicks in it. I am not sure how many. I didn't want to disturb them too badly. I also found another box that had one egg in it, and another with five in it. I also found two nests that had been destroyed. These were boxes that had previously been installed that we cleaned out and prepared for the nesting season. One was destroyed by a raccoon and another by starlings. We lost around 15 eggs there -#&#*!- . We are going to make modifications to these boxes in hope of detering predators more. I could be wrong, but I believe that that puts us up to 87 eggs that have been produced in cache valley through our efforts, and the hens of the boxes that I found today were not done laying yet, so I figure that there is a possible 15-20 eggs that will be produced in those boxes alone. This project has turned out to be quite a success. I will post pictures when I get a chance.


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## captain (Nov 18, 2007)

Here are the pictures from some of the boxes I checked yesterday


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## duck jerky (Sep 8, 2007)

Awesome! maybe I'll finally get one of those woodies during the hunt.


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## captain (Nov 18, 2007)

I thought that I would give one more report on the project. I went out today to check out how many chicks had hatched form the nest I checked a few days ago. Since the chicks only spend 36 hours in the nest from the time they hatch I knew that they should all be out of there. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that out of the 17 eggs that were in the nest 15 of them had hatched and left the nest. I have posted a picture of the nest as I found it. It feels really good to know that after hours of work and restless nights of wondering if the ***** would leave them alone until they hatched, that I have actually helped make a difference. The exciting part now is that there are still several hens sitting right now that are almost ready to have their babies hatch as well.

All I can ask is that every one stays off of the hen wood ducks this season. I cannot express how valuable a mature hen wood duck is to the future of this program and the future of wood ducks in this fly way. Don't let all of our hard work go to waste. Thanks








Here is another nest that is just getting ready to hatch out.


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

GREAT NEWS Captain!

sooo whos in charge of predator control :twisted:


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## deadicated1 (Mar 17, 2008)

anyone with a weapon, hounds, or the love of ducks and conservation!!!


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

cool, you guys clear the permission to spotlight with the local PD and im there!

gentelmen, i still have this nest box just sittin around. who wants it?? it is on a 10' section of 4" PVC...


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## captain (Nov 18, 2007)

Longgun said:


> gentelmen, i still have this nest box just sittin around. who wants it?? it is on a 10' section of 4" PVC...


Oh me me me, pick me. John, we still have lots of places that could use boxes over in Cache valley. You ought to come up and take a look at what we've got going.


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## Donttreadonme (Sep 11, 2007)

Longgun said:


> cool, you guys clear the permission to spotlight with the local PD and im there!
> 
> gentelmen, i still have this nest box just sittin around. who wants it?? it is on a 10' section of 4" PVC...


John we can definitely use it. If someone closer doesn't want it I will pick grab it from you the next time I am down that way. That or have someone pick it up on their way up here.

Edit because Jim beet me to it.


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## deadicated1 (Mar 17, 2008)

where do you live, longgun?


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

Bump. I really enjoyed reading about this. Can we all get some follow up? DId the chicks hatch and did you guys get more pics? Thanks in advance!!


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## Donttreadonme (Sep 11, 2007)

Nor-Tah I'm glad you enjoyed reading about the wood duck project. We had a great nesting season with hundreds of eggs laid and hatched. I'm sorry I don't remember the exact number of eggs laid but we had right around 80% of those laid hatch and leave the boxes. We don't have the recourses to track the birds once they leave the box. I have only seen 4 wood ducks since late July in the area. Some of the local old timers that have been watching the wood ducks for longer than I have been alive, say once they hatch and have the ability to fly, they get heading south. I will see if I can come up with the exact number of eggs laid and hatched.

If you liked reading about it, you ought to come up next spring and help us put out more boxes and prep the ones we have out. You will see waterfowl in a whole different light. Getting the opportunity to place a box and then see it full of eggs, and later see that all or most of the eggs hatched and got out of the box is awesome. It may not sound that cool but believe me and anyone else who has had the experience, it will light a fire in you.

[attachment=0:1w58xw93]henwithchicks06-17-08.jpg[/attachment:1w58xw93]


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

joel, i wish i would have followed up on this thread...i still have that box! :roll:


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

deadicated1 said:


> where do you live, longgun?


kaysville...


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## Donttreadonme (Sep 11, 2007)

Longgun said:


> joel, i wish i would have followed up on this thread...i still have that box! :roll:


I figured you and Jim had got that all worked out. Let me know when you are headed up this way to hunt and I will try to meet up with you to get it. And maybe tag along on the hunt. :wink:


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## captain (Nov 18, 2007)

Sorry, I guess I didn't know that I was supposed to pick it up. I figure that longgun will be planning a trip or two up this way this fall anyway :wink: . Just bring it up then. I think that we are going to do another wood duck nesting project this spring. We can put it up then.


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

Hey DTM I will make some time to help out this year. Bump this thread or PM me then... Great work and keep us posted if one of those guys end up getting shot...


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