Okay everyone, gather round. Local resident, Paul Basham, has a nature lesson for you all. Hurray!
In the photograph to the right, Edward Robinson, certified wildlife biologist of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, is seen putting up a wood duck nesting box along a pond in the Concord area. A graduate of the University of New Hampshire, Robinson has been with the department for 27 years and is a leader of the state Waterfowl Project.
There are about 300 such nesting boxes throughout the state, and many of them are checked each winter to see if they have been used the previous nesting season. Following the 2007 nesting period, it was determined that 70 percent of the boxes had been occupied by waterfowl, which was higher than recent years, and that boxes not used by waterfowl were occupied by song birds, mice and honey bees. About 70 percent of the waterfowl using the boxes were hooded mergansers, and 24 percent were wood ducks.
Hooded mergansers – named for the dark feathers on their head and neck resembling a hood – should now be returning. Diving quickly, the hooded merganser is extremely rapid under water, where it eats small fish, aquatic insects and tadpoles. Nesting in tree cavities, the female lays 10 to 12 eggs and the incubation period is 30 to 37 days. After hatching, the young will leap out of the nest to the ground or water. About 70 days later, they will be flying.
The wood ducks arrive back in New Hampshire as soon as ice has left the woodland ponds. Regarded by many as the most beautiful duck in North America, it was once threatened with extinction in early 1900s from over hunting and loss of habitat. This prompted the governments of Canada and the United States in 1918 to close the hunting season on wood ducks. After the wood duck population rebounded, limited hunting was allowed, starting in 1941.
With a diet that is 90 percent plant food, wood ducks have been known to wander deep into the woods for acorns, beech nuts, grapes and berries. The wood duck will nest in tree cavities, sometimes as far as a mile from water. After an incubation period of 27 to 33 days, the young will jump out of the nest, regardless of the height, in response to calls of the female on the ground. About 60 days after hatching, the young will fly.
Thanks to people like Edward, the nesting boxes have proven to be of great value in maintaining the population of hooded mergansers and especially wood ducks.
Paul Basham
