nesting boxes

In the fall of 1962 Ron Grazioplena turned 14, making him old enough to hunt when accompanied by an adult. Back then, as it is now, the waterfowl season was split into two parts, the early and late season. Because his birthday occurred after the first split, Ron partook of the late season duck hunt. It wasn't until the following year - during the autumn of '63 - that he experienced his first goose hunt. 

Ron's entry into the world of the waterfowler took place in a different era, when hunters stood in line for days at the old permit station on Albion Road, hoping to draw one of the available blinds on the Oak Orchard Wildlife Management Area, where duck and goose hunters were limited to 15 shells and all hunting to cease at noon. But Ron and his buddies never had to stand in line. Rather than hunt the game management areas they scouted corn lots, winter wheat fields and the like. Gaining access courtesy of landowners was never a problem.

Ron's high school years at Notre Dame of Batavia limited his hunting to after school and weekends. In 1970 he graduated from St. Bernard College in Alabama with a degree in biology. Rather that apply for a job, he opted to spend the autumn outdoors and proceeded to hunt geese for 70 straight days. It was a regimen he adhered to for nearly two decades, spending every moment possible outdoors. In the process he accessed another form of education, one seldom found in a classroom.

Ron's hunting career began with the youthful anticipation of taking his first duck or goose, to seeking his first bag limit, to striving to take birds on every hunt. Before long he began to invest his time and money into purchasing the best equipment in order to help him attain his goals. Eventually, after years of waterfowling, the time came when he felt that taking his limit of ducks or geese was not nearly as important as the enjoyment of the hunt in all its different aspects. Said Ron, "The frosty chill that comes with first light, sunrise, the whistling of wings over the marsh and the beauty of the birds. Nature began to mean something."  

By 1991 Ron had reached a point where he pulled the trigger only on occassion, discovering he no longer wished to hunt the waterfowl he had enjoyed over the years. By now the family owned a 30 acre marsh and it was at this time when Ron decided he would do his part to help waterfowl thrive. Thus began the building and erecting of wood duck nesting boxes.  

While wood ducks readily took to the nesting boxes, so too did various predators help themselves to the contents of the boxes. One spring, while assisting Ron in the repair of the nesting boxes, we found several with raccoons sleeping inside. And these were boxes that had been placed in the middle of the marsh, far from shore. Still, it had not deterred the strong-swimming racoons. In addition to racoons, mink inhabit the marsh. While not a skilled climber like the raccoon, the mink is an aquatic predator which readily preys on  ducks and their eggs. Thats not too mention weasels, a hazard for shore nesters, then there are  were the winged predators: Great Horned Owls,Redtail  hawks and the like. 

 With so many predators having a taste for waterfowl, Ron developed a new type of nesting compartment, one made from plastic drums, both comfortable and roomy for nesting waterfowl. Made of hard plastic, the drums are secured to steel pipe, their width and and slick surface prevents raccoons and such from taking a firm grip and climbing up and in. In the above photo, the drum on the right has a goose sitting on a clutch of eggs.

"This style of nest has a bottom section which enables hen ducks to spend the night with their ducklings safely out of the water, yet out in the middle of the marsh and away from shore predators" said Ron. He refers to them as "duck motels."  

"Past experience has shown that mother ducks, particularly wood ducks, will utilize such a structure to protect their brood at night when they need to be out of the water and under their mother's wings for warmth and protection", he added.

Installing and maintaining the nests, as well as policing the marsh takes a lot of work. Here Matt Moscicki prepares to install nests. Additional help on the marsh includes Jeff Moscicki, Mary MacIntyre, Darla Luttrell and Ron's cousin and marsh owner, Kenny Grazioplene. 

This is Mary MacIntyre showing the location of active nests.

Mary removing debris from the spillway.

Here Matt prepares to set a pipe into the marsh bottom.

Here's Ron enjoying the fruits of their labor as depicted in the following photos. 

A pair of mallards dabbling

As the mallard on left comes up for air, note the water running off his head and down his bill.

The marsh is home to a variety of waterfowl. Sometimes the open water diving ducks show up, like this pair of buffleheads.

Buffleheads taking off. Both bufflehead photos courtesy of Mary MacIntyre.

Check out the pointed bill on this Red-breasted Merganser - he's a diving duck and a fish eater.

A winged predator with an ample wing span flies past...

While nesting waterfowl are protected.... thanks to Ron "Grazo" Grazioplena and his friends.

This drake wood duck photo, submitted by Ron Grazioplena of Batavia, was also touched up a bit around the eye in order to better display the likeness of an old friend of Ron's. 

In the mid-nineties Ron was doing his best to enhance the lives of wood ducks and other waterfowl inhabiting a 30 acre marsh, a family-owned piece of property. With help from his father, the late Mario Grazioplena, Ron erected a series of wood duck nesting boxes. It was during this time period that the little wood duck with the peculiar white markings on its face became a regular visitor to the marsh. The first time he saw the duck, Ron immediately noticed the unique markings around its eyes. The markings, in the form of white piping entirely circling the eye, were were common for hen wood ducks, not males.    

Each day, when Ron tossed dry feed to the feathered inhabitants of the marsh, the "woodie" was on hand to enjoy the handout. Ron became fond of the little wood duck with the strange markings, even giving him a name. Ron called him "Blaze."  For several weeks Blaze was a regular visitor to the marsh. Then, one day, just like that the little duck failed to show up. Next day same thing. When a week passed and still no sign of Blaze, Ron figured his little buddy had either migrated south or shot by a hunter

Weeks passed, the first half of the split duck season closed, Thanksgiving had come and gone and Ron had all but forgotten about the little wood duck. The morning of December 25th found Ron standing along the southwest corner of the marsh, giving the ducks a  Christmas morning handout. He was tossing cracked corn to the marsh inhabitants when a wood duck with strange but familiar markings swam toward him. It was Blaze!

Ron's little buddy had returned. Not surprisingly, the unexpected Christmas morning visit provided a moving moment. And while there is no way of knowing for certain, perhaps Blaze had been hatched right there on the family's marsh - in one of the wood duck nesting boxes erected by Ron and his father.

To fully appreciate the above-mentioned account, one  needs to go back in time, to the fall of 1962, Ron's first hunting season. Stay tuned for Full Circle Waterfowling....Pt. II