[Mnbird] Wood duck houses

[Pamela Brustman]

That is all sad and also alarming.
I too see reductions in numbers, and the wood duck boxes we had when I
shared a house on different habitats when I was married .
Last year none were used, not by ducks, and one that had been repeatedly
used by a pair of great crested flycatchers.

It is worrying. I hope it is like weather, not climate. A change that
happens, as life changes. Not the long term angle of extirpation or worse,
vs extinction.

- Pamela
Never give up on a dream just because of the length of time it will take to
accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. - Unknown

“There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.”
― Aldo Leopold
I am one who cannot.


On Sun, Apr 3, 2022 at 10:42 AM DONALD GRUSSING Owner via Mnbird <
mnbird at lists.mnbird.net> wrote:

> My neighbor's house (which like mine was abandoned last year) had a
> squirrel nest over the wood shavings and two dead grey squirrels. It is a
> wooden house which he built. Now it is refreshed and ready.
>
> My house was just as we left it in late spring after the hen had abandoned
> nine eggs. After she quit sitting, we ditched the eggs and replaced the
> shavings. The shavings yesterday looked just as they did last summer.
> Untouched. Intact. With not a single leaf added. Our pond dried up so I am
> blaming the drought.
>
> We have a few wood ducks around this spring and higher water levels so we
> will have to see what happens.  Last year was the first year we did not
> have a brood raised. The year before there were two, one hen moved in after
> the first one left with her brood. Also saw a Hooded Merganser hen enter
> the house. She may have laid an egg. I never got eyes on that brood.  There
> were so many hens around last year I watched one try to get into a bluebird
> house.
>
> And due to the Texas blizzard last year, there were no bluebirds in the
> neighborhood and few in the midwest for that matter. One person who runs a
> 500 house bluebird trail in Nebraska was said to have less than 10 occupied
> houses last year. I am not sure if those numbers are completely accurate
> Still  there will probably be few bluebirds this year either, though my
> sister who lives near St. Louis has them already building nests in her
> houses.
>
> Don Grussing
> Minnetonka
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