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Thread: Why Wood Ducks are SC's MOST important duck

  1. #1
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    Default Why Wood Ducks are SC's MOST important duck

    In 2019 18,300 active hunters harvested an estimated total of 131,100 ducks.......67,206 were Wood Ducks!

    In 2020 23,100 active hunters harvested an estimated 141,300 ducks.......96,340 were Wood Ducks!


    I am posting this try to raise awareness as to just how important Wood Ducks are to SC. Please consider adopting a dilapidated old wood duck box, many which are death traps for eggs, or build and install a new nesting box. It's work, but the rewards will be seen beyond our lifetime for generations to come. If the ducklings don't make it to jump day, they'll never make it to hunt day.


    https://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/p...and2020-21.pdf
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    Listen to your elders. Not because they are always right but because they have more experiences of being wrong.

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  2. #2
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    I have room to add and couple to repair before next nesting go round…

  3. #3
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    Im sure ill get bashed for saying this but I wish they would close season on them. Think it would stop alot of the pressure and encourage the ones who would stick with it to hunt harder and smarter. Atleast for a season..
    Last edited by coot nasty; 08-21-2021 at 07:30 PM.
    "I'm just a victim of a circumstance"

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by coot nasty View Post
    Im sure ill get bashed for saying this but I wish they would close season on them. Think it would stop alot of the pressure and encourage the ones who would stick with it to hunt harder and smarter. Atleast for a season..
    Thats something we can agree on.

  5. #5
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    In order to reduce pressure, you need restrictions, SC hunters don't want restrictions therefore you'll never reduce pressure. It's a viscous cycle that is doomed to repeat itself like it has been argued ad nauseum on here since inception.

    A better goal is to change the things you can starting with increasing the local waterfowl population.
    Listen to your elders. Not because they are always right but because they have more experiences of being wrong.

    "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give" Sir Winston Churchill

  6. #6
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    That's a lot of poppers!
    I think woodie nest boxes are OK but I would be willing to bet there are more out of production than are in production.
    IE, they are derelict and unmaintained which makes them a eco. sink.
    Also, in the grand scheme of things I think they are inconsequential to overall population increase since the number of natural cavities is so high.
    Walk out in a forested wetland in SC and start looking up.....there are cavities everywhere!
    This is just an opinion of course....
    The harvest increase in all the southern states is a bit alarming though.
    Last edited by Calibogue; 08-22-2021 at 07:07 AM.
    \"I never saw a wild thing feel sorry for itself. A small bird will drop dead frozen from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.\" <br />D.H. LAWRENCE

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Calibogue View Post
    That's a lot of poppers!
    I think woodie nest boxes are OK but I would be willing to bet there are more out of production than are in production.
    IE, they are derelict and unmaintained which makes them a eco. sink.
    Also, in the grand scheme of things I think they are inconsequential to overall population increase since the number of natural cavities is so high.
    Walk out in a forested wetland in SC and start looking up.....there are cavities everywhere!
    This is just an opinion of course....
    The harvest increase in all the southern states is a bit alarming though.
    Here's a good read on nesting box success as well as why it's important to clean out nesting boxes DURING Spring nesting season. https://www.ducks.org/conservation/w...-the-wood-duck

    Wood duck harvest shouldn't be alarming, they're the #2 species harvested in the Atlantic and Mississippi flyways. This should be a testament to the success of proper management.

    Those natural nesting cavities are similar habitat as a neglected nesting box and I'm sure they are more prone to predation by snakes and coons. In the last 20 years alone how much natural habitat has been lost in SC to development? I'm not a biologist but it seems like raised goose nesting sites, mallard nesting tubes and wood duck nesting boxes might give waterfowl a little bit of an edge on nest success. 20% survivability to adulthood doesn't sound like much but think how many baby ducks had to actually make it to "jump day" for folks in SC to kill 96,000 of them........that's 480,000 baby ducks.

    IMO, working my wood duck boxes is merely one way to "put back" as well as teach young and old along with new duck hunters and youth the necessity of conservation.
    Listen to your elders. Not because they are always right but because they have more experiences of being wrong.

    "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give" Sir Winston Churchill

  8. #8
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    My box went unused this year and I was disappointed! I left just a little bit of natural base from last year's nesting, should I have went to bare wood?
    Low country redneck who moved north

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by mudflat View Post
    My box went unused this year and I was disappointed! I left just a little bit of natural base from last year's nesting, should I have went to bare wood?
    I always put fresh chips in mine.
    Last edited by wob; 08-22-2021 at 09:20 AM.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by wob View Post
    I always put fresh chips in mine.
    This, clean out old stuff to bare wood then add a couple inches of fresh Ceder chips.
    Quote Originally Posted by Birddawg View Post
    I dont know how it was done. For all I know that weird bastard that determined it's gender licked it.

  11. #11
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    I use a handful of pine straw, cypress needles, or leaves from the base of the box. I'm too cheap to pay for cedar shavings when I'm cleaning them out 3+ times per year and have 50 boxes to keep up. The ducks don't care. They will lay and successfully hatch eggs with zero bedding material in the box.

  12. #12
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    I'm certainly not ever knocking conservation efforts by any means.

    I'm just not real sure I can get behind the idea that dilapidated boxes are actually harmful to ducks.

    Wildlife as a whole are pretty resilient and I'd like to believe that a wild mama duck has enough sense to know whether or not a box is suitable and safe to lay a clutch.

    On Marion, there are thousands of dilapidated boxes left over from the 90s, and few areas where boxes are maintained annually.

    I'd wager we have more wood ducks than anywhere in the state, and it's certainly not due to an up-to-date, well run conservation effort by anybody.
    Be proactive about improving public waterfowl habitat in South Carolina. It's not going to happen by itself, and our help is needed. We have the potential to winter thousands of waterfowl on public grounds if we fight for it.

  13. #13
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    Teach young and old hunters to only shoot THEIR daily limit

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by BOGSTER View Post
    I'm certainly not ever knocking conservation efforts by any means.

    I'm just not real sure I can get behind the idea that dilapidated boxes are actually harmful to ducks.

    Wildlife as a whole are pretty resilient and I'd like to believe that a wild mama duck has enough sense to know whether or not a box is suitable and safe to lay a clutch.

    On Marion, there are thousands of dilapidated boxes left over from the 90s, and few areas where boxes are maintained annually.

    I'd wager we have more wood ducks than anywhere in the state, and it's certainly not due to an up-to-date, well run conservation effort by anybody.
    I don't think mama duck has the sense to know whether a nesting box is safe. If I removed every predator guard I believe I'd lose every clutch to rat snakes here on Murray. I do know that they are prolific breeders and will attempt to re nest after losing their clutch to predation or abandonment. (which is why I clean out my boxes). Marion and Moultrie have vast expanses of ideal habitat for wood ducks, Murray, not so much. It would be interesting to know the amount of predation on Marion / Moultrie in natural cavity nests though.

    I've always been diligent about cleaning out my boxes 2 to 3 times during nesting season. I use cedar shavings for bedding as I'd like to think it might deter bugs. I've been told it's a waste of time but it seems to work and I'm seeing 2-3 clutches leave some boxes per season. If I leave rotten eggs in the box....they won't get used again for this season or even next Spring. The dilapidated boxes I have seen here on lake Murray haven't been used in years until I've taken them over.

    Here's a good read.
    https://www.ducks.org/conservation/w...-the-wood-duck

    "Regardless of geographic location, nest boxes that exist among quality brood habitats and that are properly maintained can increase local wood duck populations."

    "In studies partly supported by Ducks Unlimited that I conducted at Mississippi State University from 1994 to 2001, I determined that nest box maintenance during the breeding season significantly increased wood duck production. Oftentimes, managers of wood duck nest houses only visit and inspect structures in late summer after the birds have completed nesting. Wood ducks do not bring material (e.g., sticks) to a site to construct nests. In natural cavities, they deposit their clutch of eggs in their own down feathers, dead wood, and other material in the cavity. In nest boxes, we should provide three to four inches of material, such as wood shavings, to provide excellent nesting conditions. Early in the nesting season, wood ducks may frequently abandon nests for various reasons or lose their eggs to predators. Thus, the removal of dead eggs and refurbishing nest boxes with clean shavings can increase wood duck production significantly. For example, at our study sites in Mississippi and Alabama, we found that 38 to 65 percent of total wood duck ducklings produced occurred in second or third nesting attempts. It is likely that duckling production may have been greater had abandoned and destroyed eggs been removed from the boxes. Thus, our and other studies show that nest box maintenance during the breeding season (i.e., monthly inspections) could tremendously boost duckling production. However, remember that federal law prohibits removing eggs of migratory birds from nests. Thus, one must be certain that wood duck nests are no longer viable before initiating nest maintenance activities."
    Listen to your elders. Not because they are always right but because they have more experiences of being wrong.

    "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give" Sir Winston Churchill

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