Every spring our local spring goose season ends on March 10, and the following weekend Chris and I organize a group to go out and get our Woody boxes in the public hunting area cleaned out and refurbished with new wood chips.
The weather is usually cool and often wet but we always get 10-15 people to show up, our local DU reps have joined us the last few years and our success rate has always bee very good out there.
This group is primarily hunters we met at the boat launch and out in the marsh. We may share a hunt with a few of the guys but some of them only get the email in March and they show up and put in a half day to put a little back in the area we all enjoy duck hunting in.
This year the weather was again cold and rainy, not our worst ever day but in the top 3 bad weather outings in the last 7 years. Everyone got the work done fast and we even put up a few new boxes. Mother's day was our first real chance to get back out and see how this area is doing. It's boat access and we were able to enlist a couple of the guys from the marsh outing to help us out. Oddly enough the volenteers show up when we really need them but only a few make it out for the checks. Which is fine with us, the follow ups are done in nicer weather and the results make for an awesome time out there.
We checked 60 boxes and have 21 active ducks nesting. At least 2 are Mergansers, and we also have a few boxes that as usual will have swallows nesting in them. We don't disturb the swallows, just starlings.
Our group photo from March:
Chris motoring us around in the marsh, ended up to be a nice weather day!
Theres a Merg in the closest box, the other had sign of ducks but no eggs yet.
Nice looking hen Woody!
Buddi doing what she does best!
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