On January 26th, several MSU FW Club members braved the cold to do some wood duck box work in collaboration with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources out at Rose Lake.
It is really important to maintain wood duck boxes when they are put up, to ensure that they are safe for ducks, as well as to ensure that they will be successful for next nesting season. After repairing any damages, removing old nesting materials to add fresh wood shavings, we did work on a total of 19 different wood duck boxes in several different locations throughout the Rose Lake Wildlife Area.
We did find a few interesting things in the boxes to make note of!
-Two different screech owls in two different boxes
-A very stubborn lazy raccoon in one box
-Feathers of a Red-winged black bird, most likely from previously nesting in the box
-Many many successful duck boxes with egg shells and fluffy down!
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| Shawn Szabo and Drew Rayner replacing a damaged wood duck box |
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| Drew Rayner and Matt placing a new wood duck box |
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| Shawn Szabo marking a wood duck box for better identification |
Written by Becca Blundell (blundel2@msu.edu)
