Wood Ducks at Lynden V

This post is the fifth in a series by Junior Grounds Manager Weston Wagner tracking the behavior of wood ducks at Lynden. Read part one here, part two here, part three here, and part four here.

April 23rd , 2015 – There are wood ducks hanging around the area in between the two nest boxes in the water just about every time I drive past. They still spook when they see you, but now they will only fly to the other side of the lake. With so many wood ducks present over the last couple of weeks, it would be hard to believe that at least one pair isn’t using the boxes as a nesting site. Soon I hope to sneak a peak in the nest boxes over the water to confirm that there is nesting activity happening.

In other news, spring looks like it’s here to stay. There are a lot of different birds besides ducks showing up. I saw gold finches, green herons, and bluebirds today. Not only did we build some brand new wood duck boxes over the winter, we also replaced all six of our bluebird houses. We went with a new style that is more similar to a wood duck box. They aren’t as big but they are much easier to monitor and clean out than the old ones.

6 bluebird houses in the front row

The six boxes in front are the ones we made for bluebirds. Just like wood duck boxes, predator protection is one of the most important factors in establishing a successful nest box. We added predator guards to the posts the bluebird boxes are mounted on. The bluebird boxes have an oval shaped hole that is sized species-specific for bluebirds. It is also important not to have a perch in front of the hole.

Bluebird

I've been monitoring the bluebird boxes since we put them up and hadn't noticed any activity. It was a different story when I went to check them out today:

Bluebird nest box activity

A fully-built bluebird nest

Bluebirds make nests of dried grasses

Three out of the six boxes had definite signs of bluebird activity, including one box that had a fully built nest. There were no eggs in the nest yet but that will happen soon! Notice how the nest is made only of grasses. It’s not a guarantee but there is a very strong chance that this was the work of bluebirds because the nest was made only of dried grasses and there was no lining of feathers inside the nest. Other birds will use a variety of items including sticks and feathers to build a nest.