Wood ducks still cranking 'em out!

[cajunwannabe]

Back in late April Beanhunter and his sons were kind enough to help me install some new wood duck boxes here on Murray. (Bean was borrowing Coot Nasty's gas post hole digger which makes pole installs a breeze with 2 people!)

It was almost May when we installed the new boxes.....folks that think April / May is too late to set up a new box are wrong, there is no such thing as too late for our Summer ducks. Every box I have was slammed full this Spring / Summer. I was out cleaning a few boxes yesterday evening and all 3 of my new boxes turned out baby ducks and I still have hens sitting in a couple of my older boxes.

Years ago I started working toward "putting back" and taking care of our local ducks by fixing up abandoned wood duck nesting boxes and installing new predator guards, roofs, etc. My goal has always been to try to put back more ducks than I harvest annually....even tho I rarely hunt here, I prefer to see the fruits of my labor. Given the high mortality rate of a baby duck, especially a wood duck, it's great to know that they at least made it to "jump day". When I was coming in from fishing Saturday a hen with 6 tiny ducklings swam across a cove near my boxes and knowing that one of those ducks just might be a youngsters "first duck" killed is a awesome thought!