Collaborating for Waterfowl Conservation

By Beth Sullivan


Last year at this time, Dave Lersch, from Delta Waterfowl, walked with me along the impounded marsh at our Anguilla Brook Preserve in Pawcatuck. He was thrilled to see perfect Wood Duck habitat, and we were happy to reveal that we had a member family planning to make, erect, and monitor houses for us on that preserve. Those houses went up a little late last year for nesting use, but we are hoping the returning wood ducks will be checking out the new offerings this season. We will be making a trip out to check in the next week, now that the snow is off the trails and ice is off the marsh.

Wood Ducks are normally very secretive but can be lured out to feed on seeds and grasses. Photo by Bob Dewire.

Dave then contacted stewards Anne Nalwalk and Mac Turner in North Stonington and investigated the Deer Run Preserve as well as the Henne Preserve. Both are beautiful wooded wetlands, perfect for wood ducks.

Dave with Anne Nalwalk and BeeGee with nest boxes to be installed at Deer Run Preserve

Here is Dave’s report:

Ducks Today and Ducks Tomorrow

In a joint effort between Avalonia Land Conservancy and the Connecticut Chapter of Delta Waterfowl Foundation, Wood Ducks and other avian species will find much more accessible and safer nesting opportunities in Avalonia wetlands. Whereas much of the effort to sustain populations of waterfowl migrations focus attention in northern plains states and in Canada, Connecticut has its place in producing waterfowl that will breed, raise their young, migrate, and return to their origins to begin the cycle again. Dave Lersch, Chapter Chairman for Delta Waterfowl in Connecticut said, "Avalonia properties are some of the most potentially productive habitat for duck production. If we can help to increase their nesting success, we can dramatically increase populations of Wood Ducks and other birds that migrate along the Atlantic Flyway." Delta Waterfowl Research in North Dakota and Canada have shown that installing nesting structures reduce predation will increase nesting success by threefold.

Delta Waterfowl volunteer with three sturdy nest boxes ready to install.

One of the attached photos shows Chapter Co-Chair John (JP) Farnell putting the finishing touches on a Wood Duck nest box in Avalonia's Deer Run Preserve at Prentice Brook, Northwest Corner Road, North Stonington.. Within one hour after erecting the box, he observed a mating pair of Wood Ducks swimming under the nest. Additional Wood duck nest boxes are being erected on other Avalonia properties.

Nobody home, yet!

Approximately 11 species of birds, including Kestrels and Screech Owls, may also use these nests. The exact location of each nest box will be documented with the DEEP and checked and cleaned each year in the Fall/Winter months. The DEEP keeps records of bird types using the nests and the size of the clutch, among other data.

A Screech Owl find the nest box a perfect fit.

A

dditional information about Delta Waterfowl Foundation may be found on their web site at www.deltawaterfowl.org.
 

Habitat Conservation

While Delta Waterfowl is an organization the promotes safe and responsible hunting, they also concentrate on and fund habitat restoration and conservation. We appreciate their support for our conservation goals even though we do not allow hunting on our preserves.

Habitat at Henne is perfect for Painted Turtles and Wood Ducks.

We will keep an eye on these boxes and make reports as the season goes on. There are diagrams and plans for building Wood Duck sized houses on line. Even if you don’t have the perfect territory for that target species, you may be rewarded by a Screech Owl or Kestrel if you position it right!

A young steward installs a predator baffle below a nest box on Anguilla Brook Marsh Preserve.

Thank you Dave and John and Delta Waterfowl.


Photographs by Beth Sullivan unless otherwise indicated.

A walk in a swamp

By Beth Sullivan

It may or may not be true that life began in a swamp, but for sure, Spring begins here. We look for the earliest spring plants, such as Skunk Cabbage and Hellebore in wetlands. We listen for the singing of the Red Winged Blackbirds in cattails and reeds as a sure sign of the season. Peepers and Wood Frogs chorus in the wet woods, and Spotted Salamanders attach egg masses to sticks in the shallow pools. The Red maples are the trees that most tolerate the wetlands and can grow in standing water for a while. Their bright red blossoms give the swamp a rosy haze.

Hellebore

Red Maple flowers

Spotted Salamander egg masses 

Several of Avalonia’s Preserves have beautiful wetlands, but it takes a special area to attract Wood Ducks. The Anguilla Brook runs from North Stonington through Stonington on its way to Wequetequock Cove and Long Island Sound. On its run it passes through several other Avalonia Preserves and protected open spaces. The waters flow fresh and clean. Historically they ran unrestricted, and American eels, for which the brook is named, traveled its length.

When the waters reach an area in Pawcatuck, before they collect in a pond then pour over a drop to the cove, they spread out in a big wetland area which is known as the Anguilla Brook Preserve “Birdland Tract” for its location behind the Birdland neighborhood. The marsh is large, shallow and almost eerie with skeletal trees, many dead from years of being flooded, shrubs draped in vines and hummocks of grasses.

Wood Duck Territory

This is Wood Duck territory. Normally the ducks will actually nest in tree holes. In a swamp like this with so many dead trees, there are often holes for their needs. When the young hatch, they use their special toenails on webbed feet, to climb the inside of the hollow and then launch themselves out the hole! If there is water below, they will float and immediately swim. If the tree hole is over dry land, the little ducklings will hopefully land softly on the leaves below. Videos have captured them bouncing lightly before walking off to find water with the rest of their family. As stewards of the marshland we have the opportunity to provide additional nest sites.

Marshy Wood Duck territory

Usually very secretive, this male Wood Duck showed up on a bird feeder. Photo by Bob Dewire.

Over the last weeks, four new Wood Duck nest boxes were installed. They are made from lumber donated by UBS and designed and built by member/volunteer Tom Frohnapfel and his family: Muireann, Ethan and Fiona . We went out on a chilly day, listened to peepers, looked for salamander egg masses, and found 4 perfect sites for the houses. Tom returned later with metal sheeting to act as predator guards. Thank you to Tom and his whole family for the effort, and for making it fun to get out and put them up!

Our generous volunteers!

Installed Wood Duck nest box

What we hope to find when we check the nests.

We walked back in yesterday. Access at this point is very limited, over private property. We did not see ducks actually in the houses, but saw a pair in the brook. We also enjoyed other colors of spring: green hellebore and red maple, yellow marsh marigolds and even blue…a great blue heron flew in to check out possible nest sites!

This Great Blue Heron looks awkward high in a tree.

We'll keep you posted!

Photographs by Beth Sullivan and Bob Dewire.