Forgive my ignorance but what the story here? Thanks
We have about 100 Wood duck Nestboxes out in our area (near Vancouver). Wood ducks are tree cavity nesters, the boxes greatly enhance nesting opportunities for these ducks in our area and increase odds of a successful hatch. I have trail cameras on about 10 of them.
This project is organized by members of my gunclub and there’s also volunteers from other organizations and people we meet duck hunting over the years.
Every spring when waterfowl season ends we all meet up at the big marsh and check our boxes, empty old damp wood chips and put in fresh wood chips. We have about 20 other boxes on private property, that’s where I put the cameras.
Always interesting to check the cameras and collect data. We get about 40% occupancy from Wood Ducks with a few Hooded Merganzers too. Tree swallows use the boxes, we are putting out some smaller boxes to see if it keeps them out of our duck nests.
The pictures let us know how things are going, always something interesting on the cameras. The pictures also inspire others to get out in their area and put a few boxes out. It’s an opportunity to teach youth about putting back into our sport, and it’s a program that is viewed positively by all members of our community.
Back in the ‘70’s my father, Bill Otway, was an organizer for a Waterfowl conservation group in our area. He was good at it, he was named Winchester’s Canadian Conservationist of the year in 1982. It’s in his honour and to honour the organization he helped create (Pitt Waterfowl Association), we do this work and chose Pitt Waterfowlers as our title.
