David Watkins does not consider himself a great duck hunter. He has taken two before and he would have had no problem if he had never done another.
But after seeing some forest ducks flying close to his York County property, he was curious about what could happen if he built and installed some wooden boxes on his lake. The goal was to make more multicolored and fun birds around.
In the first year, more ducks hatched than he could count. Watkins said he believed there were at least 60 to 75 puppies.
Success like Watkins’ has been seen across South Carolina, largely due to the state’s Department of Natural Resources wooden duck box program, which continues to grow in demand.
Each year, the agency provides thousands of pre-assembled wooden duck boxes on a first come first served basis, so private owners can help with duck production. It is so popular that you need to enter the lottery to win them.
Interested landowners can apply online to receive up to three free boxes a year during the duck season, which runs from November 21st to 28th and again from December 12th to January 31st.
Emily Kearse, lottery hunting coordinator at DNR, said the agency had allocated 1,200 boxes a year in recent years and more than 50,000 since the program began in the 1980s.
All cases last year were claimed within two hours of the start of the application period. This is even faster than in 2019, when everyone was claimed and disappeared in 12 hours.
These types of wooden nest boxes were developed by biologists in the 1940s and helped the duck population to remain sustainable on the east coast.
The species was on the verge of extinction in the early 20th century after human development and activity decreased the number of natural cavities available in the birds’ preferred forests and swamps.
Woodland ducks are one of the few species of ducks that nest in hollows and hollow places in trees. They especially like oak trees.
“So, with the over harvesting of these hardwood forests from the soil, ducks began to have a hard time finding places to nest successfully,” said Molly Kneece, water bird biologist DNR.
Deep hardwood forests are swamps along rivers and streams found on wide floodplains, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are credited with creating the wooden crates that are now used as nesting sites for ducks. The boxes typically measure 30 x 18 inches and can be mounted on the side of a tree or on a wooden post placed on the edge of a swamp or swamp.
Most wooden duck boxes come with predator shields to keep out animals such as raccoons or snakes that can get in and eat the eggs.
Boxers of ducks managed by the Department of Natural Resources come with predator shields to prevent snakes and other animals from eating eggs. SCDNR / Provided
“Excluding these predators from these boxes really allows these ducks to successfully sit in that litter of eggs and allow the eggs to hatch,” said Kneece. “And eventually, these ducklings come out of those boxes.”
Kneece said the wooden duck boxes play a special role in bringing the species back to the brink of extinction.
Most South Carolina ducks stay in the state only during the winter and breed in other areas, such as the Midwest and Canada. But forest ducks remain year-round, so these special boxes give Southern Carolinians the opportunity to support the species.
“It’s a very, very cool process,” said Kneece. “Many people like to look at these boxes, put them in places on the water that they can see from their homes or places they frequent frequently.”
Some people are lucky to see ducklings jump from them.
Many residents outside the hunting community are invested in the project. York County resident Watkins was selected in 2019 as a recipient of free duck boxes through the DNR program.
He said he thought DNR boxes are in high demand because they are already assembled. Wood duck boxes are not easy to build and the species is very particular about how natural they are.
Wood duck boxes at Shealy’s Pond Heritage Preserve in Lexington County. SCDNR / Provided
“So, if there was any kind of stain or something, they wouldn’t mess with it,” said Watkins. “So they have to be as natural as they can be for a duck at the same time to consider entering it.”
He said that ducks don’t like any box that looks like it’s made by man and smells like paint or oil.
DNR has included instructions on its website on how to make wooden duck boxes, as not everyone can get one for free.
Kneece said that South Carolina now has a very healthy wild duck population. The species is protected by the Migratory Birds Treaty Law. Hunters are allowed a daily baggage allowance of just three wooden ducks during the season. Forty-six wood ducks were harvested in the 2019-20 season, according to the DNR water bird harvest summary.
Kneece, members of the South Carolina Nemours Wildlife Foundation and Clemson University are working together to take a closer look at how wood duck boxes help to increase the population so they can try to calculate their size.
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