Posted By:
Craig-Emory
Field Editor
worchester county 09-20-2009 12:32
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
hunted friday evening. saw four mallards and four wood ducks. no teal so no shots. hunted saturday morning. saw a small flock of canadian geese, two mallards flew over our decoys and we heard wood duck for about the first hour and half, but did not see any. we had one flock of greenwing teal fly over and we managed to kill one hen. first time i hunted the early teal season. weather wasn’t bad, but the mosquitos were everwhere.
Posted By:
rwigton@hotmail.com
Web Member
patuxent river 09-19-2009 14:59
– – Over 70 Degrees
Went to chase the teal this morn..late! shot 2 bluewings @ 9:00 then saw about 5 flocks of about 8 or 10 each flying high and fast.. mexico bound! nice north wind carrying them southbound. had to leave to go to a funeral of an old trapper friend that smoked to much, lost 20 trapping seasons ’cause of those Marlboro’s. Everytime i see a muskrat from the duck blind i’ll think of him. The birds are moving, not hundreds yet, but at least a few.. lot’s, and i mean LOTS! of woodies. more woodies than teal at this time.. wow!
Posted By:
JohnMc
Guest
Cecil Co. 09-01-2009 15:25
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 60-65 Degrees
Hunted the Sassafras River this morning. Had three group work (two pairs and a single) got one out of each group. Ended up with three. I was defiantly good getting back out after them honkers……..
Posted By:
rwigton@hotmail.com
Web Member
duck land USA!!!!!! 07-07-2009 18:56
– – –
looks like ducks are up this year boys!!! check out the usfws survey for this spring. the ducks are way up!!! just announced yesterday.. i didn’t see the estimate for “ap geese”. cliff, post if u catch it. r
Posted By:
Cliff-Brown
Field Editor
Maryland 05-04-2009 16:26
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 60-65 Degrees
MARYLAND WOOD DUCK Initiave
“A Total Wetlands Experience “
May 4, 2009 Activity Report #29
See www.mwdi.net for prior reports
1. External Affairs & Education
MWDI is moving (albeit at a” measured” pace) towards finalizing video footage of various wood duck activities for web site display, general presentations and as teaching modules. We plan to aggregate and integrate the data into several different length and topical features. Dave Godfrey has prepared a video with narrative. Roger Strand of the Wood Duck Society has provided DVD footage of ducklings departing the nest and has in progress conversion of substantive VHS ”in box” recorded data to DVD format. Scott Jasion has canvassed UTube / internet published material and has sent several “clips” that focus on hatching, nest exit and hen strife. Stay tuned but be patient!
On May 2nd, 20 kids assembled and profusely decorated 20 wood duck boxes at the Delta Waterfowl – Decoy Museum’s Waterfowler Days Exhibition in Havre de Grace. Special thanks to Scott Jasion and Greg Raymond for their assistance and to the Upper Bay Chapter of Delta Waterfowl for their funding of the cypress utilized for these boxes.
Maret High School’s AP Environmental Class project continues with a May 13th nest monitoring outing at Chesapeake Farms. 16 students and 2 teachers will join Josh Homyack, MD DNR, Rich Mason, USF&W and Phil Poux, Ducks Unlimited and me to inspect about 65 boxes.
Bass Pro will sponsor a youth box assembly event at the Arundel Mills store August 16th. Certain proceeds generated will be provided to MWDI for our next wood purchase. Bass Pro will also install a wood duck box and guard in their store front pond. Appropriate signage is also being considered. Special thanks to Bass Pro’s Norb Wagner for his support.
2. Field Operations – Spring 2009
Nest inspections are occurring in earnest. Site inspections for potential projects are also continuing as are site inspections and advice to various private nest programs. Our next lumber order date is not set yet, possibly January 2010. MWDI does not have boxes or predator guards to sell.
Recent new projects and key project expansions for the 2009 or 2010 nest season have been developed or completed as follows:
Patuxent River Naval Air Station (St Mary’s) – 12+/- box program. James Swift, Program Manager.
St Mary’s Lake (St Mary’s) – 6 box program. Bob Boxwell, Southern MD Audubon, Program Manager.
Grove Farm WMA (Cecil) – 15 boxes installed. Mark Hooper, DNR, and John Sturgill managing.
Susquehanna State Park (Harford) – 12 of the 20 boxes were installed. Chris Todd, Jason Schlosser and Harford DU Chapter managing.
Nanticoke WMA (Wicomico) – program expanded by 5 boxes to 16. Garrett Sheller, managing.
Lower Eastern Shore (Somerset, Worchester) – 33 replacement and new boxes were installed in the Shad Landing, Pocomoke River North, Nassawango River, Cypress Swamp and EA Vaughan sites. Aaron Ward and Maryland Waterfowler’s volunteers managing.
Taylors Island (Dorchester) – 4 box program installed. Buzzy Abbott, managing.
Cedarville Park (Charles) – 6 box program on Zekiah Swamp installed. Special thanks to Bill Moffat and Kenny Hartman, DNR and the Maryland Conservation Corps.
Furnace Bay (Cecil ) – habitat and site selection planned May 12. Installation of a 6+/- box program planned May 27th. Harford Glen Ed Center (Chris Burle) and Town of Perryville sponsors.
Urieville Lake (Kent) – 6 boxes installed. John Notorangelo will manage.
Lake Victoria & Anacostia (PG) – MCNPPC Rangers (Ben Sweet, coordinator) have installed 4 boxes at Lake V. and up to 12 are planned at the Anacostia River wetland mitigation site.
Greenwell State Park and Point Lookout Park were inspected and habitat seems limited. Replacement of boxes at North Park in Have de grace will be evaluated in May.
The Piscataway (PG) project will probably be abandoned. The local manager died and only one box was active. MWDI can provide supplies for a moderate program if interest exists as habitat is favorable. A shallow draft boat & motor is needed.
MWDI seeks new public lands or river projects where ongoing nest supervision is provided. Boxes, poles and predator guards as well as installation assistance and training are available.
3. Early Nesting Perceptions – Mixed Results
Spring rains have followed late winter rains to recharge wetlands and brood habitat has been favorably enhanced. Early nesting perceptions are mixed. More hooded merganser nests have been observed at McKee Beshers but at Patuxent Wildlife, they are way down compared to 2008 levels. Wood duck nest use, on very limited data through April, appears comparable to modestly up from 2008 levels in several areas, uncertain in others. Nest starts seem moderately later in most areas and down overall in others. Thus, it is hard to be very definitive at this stage. Nest dumping does not seem high or rampant in certain projects that have this problem and early information suggests that average clutch sizes are moderately lower but the somewhat later nest starts and partially completed nests may account for this. Last year, lower nest “demand” actually helped productivity in these sites even though average egg count was down, hatch success was up. Apparent nest strife and nest failures were down, allowing for higher productivity overall. I’m waiting to get more band recovery data to see if the 3 bird limit might be having an impact. Once I finally get all the 2007 and 2008 results sorted into various sub-analyses, it will be interesting to compare the data with 2009 nesting results to see if certain nesting patterns or trends are indicated.
Your continued interest and support is most appreciated. Thank you.
Cliff Brown
Posted By:
duckaneer
Guest
03-21-2009 19:53
– – –
Thanks Cliff, I’m already on it.
Posted By:
Cliff-Brown
Field Editor
Maryland 03-18-2009 17:48
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 60-65 Degrees
Mayland Wood Duck Initiative
March 19, 2009 Activity Report #28
Updates the January 6th report
See www.mwdi.net for prior reports
1. External Affairs & Education
Website hits rise to 250 monthly; requests for private program advice & assistance also rising. A public site reference map has now been generated by DNR for booth displays, presentations and website use. Eventually, all project details, nesting results and volunteer opportunities will be available online sourced by clicking on a particular map site reference. Continuing kudos to DNR’s Linda Wiley and Wade Henry for their special talents.
Useful PR continues through an article in Bucks’ Wild Magazine, February booth displays at the Queen Anne and Annapolis DU dinners, reference in the winter 2009 issue of Maryland Natural Resource magazine, a March 21 presentation to the DU Annual Maryland State Convention and pending articles in Ruts & Struts magazine and the Maryland Natural Resource magazine. Dave Godfrey, Wye Island project manager, has produced a wood duck video on YOUTUBE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4MCf_VDaEY) and has also developed a video for box inspections for the Pickering Creek Audubon site.
MWDI will host two high school internships during the May 18-28th period and we’ll keep them active inspecting nest boxes all over Maryland – it’ll probably be too early for the exploding egg treatment! J.M.Tawes school (Somerset) took receipt of their South Carolina cypress and will fabricate over 50 boxes for sale this fall. Bennett School (Wicomico) is now fabricating 10 additional Freon nesting canisters. A Wicomico Boy Scout troop will assemble 13 box kits for lower shore projects. MWDI will participate in a Delta Waterfowl event supporting the Havre de Grace Decoy Museum and Decoy Festival May 1-3. MWDI will have a booth display, make a presentation and host a youth box building event. For information http://www.chesapeakeducks.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=52&Itemid=79
Recent funding for 2010 season boxes has been provided by the Upper Bay Chapter of Delta Waterfowl, the Chestertown Wildlife Exhibition & Sale and for various other supplies by the Maryland Waterfowler’s Association. MD DNR has continued their support for supplies including a new 300 predator guard order to be manufactured by the Hagerstown Correctional Facility.
Our aggregated lumber order for South Carolina sourced cypress was very successful. Wood for 275+ boxes was obtained and 228 kits were cut on March 4th. 312 predator guards were also received from Minnesota and distributed to various private program sponsors. Special thanks to DNR’s Millington crew – Josh Homyack, Bill Martin and Edmund “Cheese” Cook for allowing the use of their facilities and to equipment suppliers /volunteers Mark Stevens, Scott Jasion, Bill Askins, Ron Kuipers, Jamie Caulfield, Josiah Morin, Steve Senigen, Aaron Ward and Ray Price . There was no Davis’ Pub in Massey like in Annapolis so I owe the boys a pop but we did have some wonderful brisket thanks to Jamie C who earned his MWDI hat. In the past four years, MWDI has now cut lumber for more than 600 boxes and it has also helped initiate or assist private program installation of more than 400 other boxes. More than 800 predator guards have also been obtained for private programs.
2. Field Operations
The scope of 2009 activity has still not been finalized as several new sites are being developed as project sponsor / managers are being developed simultaneously. Total new net capacity will approximate 125 boxes with total box installations over 150 bringing total public box capacity to about 1,670 boxes, up from 1,545 in 2008 excluding box totals that may exist in the potential Patuxent Naval Station site. This program scope will utilize our entire remaining supply of predator guards. We will likely phase in other new projects without regard to the 2009 nest season as our guard supply is replaced and as our kits are assembled into boxes over the course of 2009.
Lake Victoria (PG) is a new 4 box program supported by the MNCPPC – PG Park Rangers. Urieville Lake (Kent) is a potential 6 box program to be managed by John Notarangelo and the Cecil CO DU chapter. Furnace Bay outside Havre de Grace is a potential 6-10 box program on county property (Harford) that may be managed by a local school. Patuxent Naval Station (St Mary’s) has an existing program that may be incorporated into MWDI. This site and various other St.Mary’s sites will be inspected March 23. Supplies exist for a phase one county program of 9-12 boxes. The Southern Maryland Chapter of the Audubon Society, Friends of St Mary’s State Park and Md’s DNR have initiated and directly supported the development of these prospective sites – our first in St Mary’s. Special thanks to Bob Lukinic, Bob Boxwell and DNR’s Bill Moffat for their efforts. Bob will also monitor nest results on the existing boxes at the Chicamuxen WMA (Charles).
Lyle Hunger (Friends of Chapman State Park), new manager of the program at Chapman (Charles), has now examined the boxes and we helped extract over 20 tires plus refrigerator doors and barrels from the wetland. Special thanks to Jerry McCarty and the use of his “barge”. Nest box monitoring is a much easier task although Jerry did come away with a shark’s tooth for his efforts.
Certain wetland habitats are still feeling the effects of a lingering drought. There is a significant water deficit to overcome before favorable nesting and brood rearing conditions are achieved across Maryland. It will again be interesting to monitor the level of nesting demand – box use & nest dumping – in specific habitats & programs. Brood survival, harvest “down south” under the new 3 bird limit and localized habitat conditions are dynamic variables, unlikely to be sorted out in one year. However, trend analyses from MWDI’s growing data set should have more relevance over time. For example, we saw hatch efficiency & production rise in programs historically subjected to relatively high dumping as a result of fewer eggs laid and lower hen “demand”. Other programs that had poor habitat experienced much lower box use and overall productivity dropped but efficiency was comparable….they just had fewer hens. Thus, the productivity gain from programs with historically high use & dump levels caused by fewer hens could be somewhat misleading except to verify that steps to reduce dumping will be increasingly beneficial in a more normal nesting cycle.
One early 2009 nest use / inspection discovery has been the confirmation of a hooded merganser nest in Cecil Co by Jordan Kane and his daughter, Rachel. 34 hooded nests were confirmed in 2006 and submitted to the Breeding Bird Atlas Survey – a substantial increase over the 1980-85 survey. 27 of the nests were found on the western shore in Montgomery, PG, Charles, Harford and Baltimore Cos.
7 were found in Kent at Millington WMA. In 2007, Somerset Co joined the list of as a new region where a confirmed hooded nest occurred. Now we have Cecil.
Your continued interest and support is most appreciated. Thank you.
Cliff Brown
Posted By:
Cliff-Brown
Field Editor
maryland 03-18-2009 17:47
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 50-60 Degrees
Duckaneer…..sorry did not see your query sooner…..still time…nesting underway for first surge but new nests from new hens or re-nesters can start well into May although primary surge starts now through April.
Cliff
Posted By:
Craig-Emory OLD
Guest
outside dover, delaware 03-09-2009 14:41
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 60-65 Degrees
crossing the bay bridge saw fair amount of ducks. a lot of bluebills.didn’t see many canadian or snow geese in md. on saturday we hunted snow geese in a wheat field. the snows flew all morning. most groups gave a look, but a lot of the bigs flocks would circle high but wouldn’t commit. we had 9 hunters and managed 51 snow geese. had a great time.
Posted By:
duckaneer
Guest
P.G. Co. 03-01-2009 21:46
– – –
Cliff, I’m looking to build some wood duck boxs for a place I hunt. How much time do I have till the nesting begins.
