Larger Scale Nest Box Projects

OTHER WOOD DUCK STORIES

Wood Duck Ecology History of Ne st box Use Wood Duck Project Update Growing by Leaps and Bounds Managing for the Wood Duck Guidelines to Maximize Your Habitat Are All Boxes Created Equal? Questions & Answers about the Wood Duck Project

The North Carolina Waterfowl Association’s Wood Duck Production Project has been growing by leaps and bounds during the 2004 installation season. Currently in the process of recruiting larger scale nest box projects, wood duck project technicians have broken ground on numerous private landowner projects, while also finding time to develop another wood duck nest box project beneficial to the public.

One such project recently completed saw the North Carolina Department of Transportation join efforts with the North Carolina Waterfowl Association to develop an active wood duck project on mitigated land. The selected site lies in Pitt County near the community of Grimesland. This 550 acre site is currently owned and operated as a sand mining site by the NCDOT, and is intended to service the Coastal Plain of the Tar-Pamlico River Basin.

Currently a deforested uplands site, mitigation components planned include the conversion of these upland sites and non-jurisdictional ponds to wetland communities. Immediate plans include creating 58 acres of forested riverine wetlands (cypress-gum swamp and coastal plain bottomland hardwoods), creation of 2 acres of emergent wetlands on submerged benches around flooded borrow pits, preservation of 348 acres of riverine wetland ecosystem and 29 acres of riparian buffer, and the enhancement of aquatic habitat with 80 acres of flooded borrow pits.

This type of habitat is ideal for a myriad of wetland dependent species, such as wood ducks, hooded mergansers, Carolina wrens, and Great crested flycatchers. The Wood Duck Production Project has recently completed the installation of 10 wood duck nesting units along 1 large wetland, and will continue to monitor and maintain these nesting structure free of charge to the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Nest checks will be performed upon the completion of each nesting season, and these structures will produce up to 50 wood duck ducklings each year, as well as countless songbirds.
Another project recently establishing a wood duck project was Crow Hill Farms, located on Harkers Island near Morehead City. NCWA wood duck biologist Sam Jeffords recently met with Mr. Warren Davis of Crow Hill Farms to discuss the project’s potential and tour the property’s vast waterfowl habitat. A total of 10 nesting units were installed along wooded creeks, marshes, and mitigated ponds. This project has the potential to grow into a large-scale nest box project capable of consistently producing successful wood duck broods.

ATTENTION!!

Did you know the NCWA Wood Duck Production Project is currently establishing a Volunteer Nest Box Project? Chapter committees will receive 25 nesting units annually to provide to qualifying landowners.

A volunteer program chairman from each committee will work with NCWA and landowners to provide this service.

For more information contact a NCWA biologist at:

North Carolina Waterfowl Association
4401 Barclay Downs Drive Suite 105
Charlotte, NC 28209
704 552 0906
ncwa_001@bellsouth.net