Volunteers install, maintain Moraine wood duck boxes
Wading knee-deep in marshy creek water isn’t everyone’s idea of a fun activity on a chilly Saturday morning.
But for volunteers and park staff working at Moraine State Park this weekend, getting a little muddy is worth the trip to maintain bird habitats.
A small group of volunteers, led by Russ Cawthorne of Specialty Outdoors, ventured into the trails of the Muddy Creek Cove area at the park to install new wood duck nesting boxes and maintain canoe pathways.
Cawthorne regularly volunteers his time to maintain over 150 wood duck nesting boxes at the park. Each year the hatching rate for wood ducks has increased, and the nesting boxes now see 700 young birds hatching and growing to leave the nest, or “fledging.”
“This is a very good area for wood ducks,” Cawthorne said. “Normally these (nests) should be good for one to five years. We recommend that anybody who does the wood duck boxes, that they check them on a regular basis every year, to take out old eggs that aren’t hatched or replace the nesting material.”
Wood ducks, a colorful species that nests in the Moraine area in the spring months, builds their nests in small holes, or cavities, often in trees. The volunteers attached metal or plastic piping as “predator guards” on the installed nesting boxes to help protect the ducks from raccoons and snakes that could eat their eggs.
“These are all new (boxes),” Cawthorne said. “There were some old ones here, but my company, Specialty Outdoors, took them all out of here, reconditioned them, and now some of them we’re bringing back.”
Moraine and McConnells Mill environmental education specialist Mike Shaffer explained the project is part of upkeep for a larger network of wood duck boxes in the park.
“This area has been getting overgrown for many years now, and there’s all kind of wood duck boxes here, but they’re just not being used, because the birds can’t get into them,” he said.
Part of the volunteers’ work on Saturday was clearing away brush from existing boxes and from canoe routes used to inspect the boxes.
Shaffer has worked with the Cavity Nesting Program for 23 years. He explained that different wildlife management programs work best for different habitats.
“Our forests are getting more mature,” he said. “One thing we started about three or four years ago is what we call the ‘Young Forest Initiative.’ That’s to focus on these birds that don’t want mature forest, they want stuff that’s not over 15 feet tall, that’s brushy and (has) high stemmed density.”
Wood ducks, he said, make their habitat in the wetlands and swamps where the group placed the boxes.
“Here in the state parks, we have what we call a Cavity Nesting Program,” Shaffer said. “Thousands and thousands of volunteers take care of the boxes. They maintain them throughout the nesting season, primarily.”
“A lot of people who do it, they just love their birds,” he added. “There’s thousands (of ducks) that nest in the park.”
