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NEXT
OPPORTUNITY TO VOLUNTEER: Sunday,
February 19th at 11:00 am. We will
meet at the wetland to install eight
additional nesting boxes. Expect
to get dirty! Wear appropriate
clothing, good shoes (water boots are
the best) and bring work gloves!
Since 2008,
Skyline High School students have
assisted with a cavity duck nesting
project at a local wetland. The
Hazel Wolf Wetland Reserve is
managed by the
Cascade Land Conservancy.
The wetland is
home to multiple bird species (pdf);
our project focuses on the wood duck (Aix
sponsa).
You can
read about our project in the Sammamish
review newspaper.
What you can find on this
page about our project:
Directions to Hazel Wolf
Nest Box Camera Catches
Evidence of Nest Competition
Field Work
Nest
Dissections
DIRECTIONS TO
HAZEL WOLF WETLAND:
1. From
Skyline, turn left onto SE 8th.
2. Turn right
onto SE Windsor Blvd.
3. At the
round-about, veer to the left onto
Windsor Drive.
4. Follow
Windsor Drive about 0.5 miles.
5. Look for
cars parked along the right hand side of
the road.
NEST
BOX CAMERA CATCHES
We've
captured these images of some young
bears attempting to get into one of the
nest boxes. They were not
successful, although the box had many
scratches on it!
EVIDENCE OF NEST COMPETITION
Check out
this series of photos from box #4.
In the first, we see a female wood duck.
About two
weeks later, there is a merganser
entering the box.
In the third
photo, you can see the female wood duck
looking on as the merganser enters the
nest box.
The fourth
pictures in incredible because there are
three ducks at the nest box... a pair of
wood ducks and a merganser!
The last
photo is a nice capture of the beautiful
plumage of the male wood duck.
FIELD WORK
Students
volunteer to work in the field twice a
year. In the spring, we remove the
previous seasons nests and prep the
boxes for the next nesting season.
In the
spring, we make sure all the boxes are
still camouflaged and install data
collection probes.
.JPG)
NEST
DISSECTIONS
In the fall,
we bring the abandoned nests back to the
class to determine egg laying success.
We determine which species of birds laid
eggs and whether or not the eggs hatched
successfully. If the eggs did not
hatch, we estimate the development of
the embryo.
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