Wood duck nests in Morristown

MORRISTOWN — Wood ducks and screech owls will have 45 new homes in the area, thanks to Black Lake Fish & Game Association.

The club has offered free wood duck nests to local families for almost 50 years. Families do not need to be members of the association.

Long-time club member, Jim Robinson, is in charge of the project.

“I buy the wood from the Amish, dry out the wood, cut the boards, make nail holes and an entrance hole for the nest boxes,” said Robinson.

Then families were invited to assemble the nest boxes, using the prepared wood pieces, on March 15, at the club’s location, 1 Gilmour Rd, Morristown.

It costs the club over $400 each year, but members say it is worth the cost.

“It’s good for the wood ducks,” said member Larry King. “Wood ducks leave the nest once the chicks have hatched. Then screech owls use the nests in the winter.”
King said the nests should be cleaned out each summer. “Like every homemaker, they unlike clean nests to start with,” he said.

The association used to build the nests themselves each year, but found it was a better idea to invite families to come help build the nests. It saves the club members time in constructing, distributing, and erecting the nest boxes, because families take the nests home and erect them in their own yards after building them at the club.

The nest boxes train wood ducks to imprint and utilize the area during breeding season and potentially increase the number of wood ducks able to be hunted each successive year.