Project: Abrams Property
County: Oconto
Project Start Date: 03/05/2022
Project End Date: 03/05/2022
By Bruce Urben, WWA President
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s April, 2022 Newsletter edition.
Thunderstorms and heavy rain didn’t deter members of the WWA’s Green Bay Chapter from completing their wood duck nest box cleaning this spring on Saturday, March 5th on WWA’s Abrams Property project.
The wood ducks should be showing up in several weeks to start their yearly process of nest site selection. It is important to make sure that their nesting boxes are cleared of old nesting debris, songbird nests, broken egg shells and even the rogue mouse nest. Fresh wood chips were exchanged for the old debris and any needed maintenance on the boxes or replacement was completed.
A huge thank you to Green Bay Chapter members; Logan Sincoular, Jake Koebernik, Jeremy VanSistine, Doug Steiner and Bruce Urben for weathering the storm and completing the cleaning effort.
Twenty-four wood duck boxes are located on WWA’s 150+ acre Abrams Project site. Most are located over water or completed scrapes on the property. The boxes on Abrams property have been maintained for over ten years!
Nesting success is measured by the remnants of broken duck eggs and down lined nests. Eight of twenty-four (33%) boxes yielded successful wood duck or merganser hatches. Down slightly from 2021!
In addition, numerous songbirds, raptors and other wild birds were seen to have nested in the boxes this year. A sign that the wetland is healthy and sustainable.
Check out our store to see how you can obtain wood duck nesting boxes for the wetland on your property. Maybe you can see the “great jump” of new hatchlings in your own back yard.
Have a happy spring and enjoy watching as our migration returns in the coming weeks.
