Ditch diving, wood duck nest boxes,

That was a project! Ditch diving for Earth Day on Wednesday and Thursday. I finished up a bit sore. I had a volunteer gig in the afternoon, I thought I'd get it off the To Do List. One more bag and I was done.

I had cleaning out the Wood Duck nest box on my To Do list. Too late. Some one has moved in, or at least renovated and created a nest-shaped bowl in the wood shavings. I put the baffles on it after I did ditch diving. Mistake. I was too tired and forget to take a water bottle. Joe was there helping me, and he went up to the house to 'fetch a pail of water.' Just kidding. A water bottle was appreciated. I lay down on the ground for a bit until the dizziness passed. 

The baffles are a bit short. They don't meet around the tree trunks. It is important, since this year a duck has been in the box and created a round shape in the shavings. 

This was May 25, 2019. A neighbour watched a fisher go in her nest boxes and eat the eggs. It is a tough world.

 

I ran out of sheet metal to protect the nest boxes. Both raccoons and weasels like to raid the boxes. 

Then there was the year (2023) the Momma bear ripped apart my nest box 📹. It was 9 p.m., June 3. The batteries died, and I missed the action.

 

This was the 'BEFORE!' then the AFTER, I opened it up, and checked carefully. 

Peeking in, there were no eggs in there. 

 

Ironically we have had a warning about local bears from the OPP on Facebook: 

 OPP warn of bear activity after encounter near Port Elmsley 

Someone reported a Momma and cubs 4.7 km away. This isn't the real panic time. It's when they begin mating in May, Momma and the male bears are getting frisky. Both sexes chase away the two year olds and the young 'uns take off to look for a new habitat. 

I sent Joe Brian in to fetch me some supplies. I need for sheeting and new downspouts. He came back since town was crazy. Perth Festival of the Maples!

This is where I fainted. I left the wagon and ladder.  Back we went the next day, after Joe went into town.

That was as high as I could manage. It's not a pretty job, but the best I could do. 

The daffodil garden is now in bloom. 

Joe rested on his laurel afterwards, having tea in the sunshine.

Have a great week!

Cinnamon Walkies

 I took Cinnamon for Walkies. He knows the word, and either waits to go out at the door, or runs to follow me outside. He's so fast, the image is distorted.

The mosses are lovely. It began to precipitate. Cinnamon, if you look closely, is blanketed in graupel.

Back up to the house we went. Of course, 'walkies' might better be called 'runnies' as he roars around to catch up to me, and runs to be the leader.

 

From there, I asked if he wanted to go to the back 40. Apparently so.

Off we went to the owl tree, and I spotted some owl mute and a pellet. Mute is the white, but you can see the pellet on the right. They regurgitate rodent fur and the bones they cannot digest.

I looked around the owl tree and found a total of three. This is the limb where the owl sat. I'll let them dry, then dissect them to see what it's been eating.

I posted the pellet photo to our Crumbly Acres family photo stream, and Aster was quite keen on dissecting it. I said I'd save her one, or did she want me to mail it to her?! She's on the rugby team at her high school. 

We kept going in order to inspect the wood duck nest box. I could hear the pileated woodpecker banging away in the forest, across the wetland. It looks like it's been at the nest box. Non-mental note, I need to reattach the baffles. I'll have to remember a ladder and the staple gun. 

I think the cardinal pair are ready for spring. He's been singing atop the trees.

Our good news is that tonight's ice storm will be a snow storm. Sunday's predicted ice storm is still in the forecast.

Wood duck nest box replacement

 This was part 1: Repairs: sympathetic restoration or an honest repair? The reason for the replacement was Momma Bear and Two Cubs!

I'm down to two wood duck nest boxes, but we only had two ducks nesting last spring. It is the one on the left that I decided to move from the frog pond to the back 40 and the wetland. 

This is box Bob repaired for me. The front had to be replaced as water was leaking in. It was a Mother's Day gift in 2016 from the kids. The problem with the boxes is that they are really heavy with the barn board. It's tough for someone, alone, to put them up. Plus, I'm not that tall, either!

Over the years, the new wood has faded, and it looks a little more camouflaged.

This is how it looked one spring, with a female wood duck in the box one spring.

I had an assistant! 

I went back on Thursday, with Cinnamon's help, and put on another set of baffles, just to be safe. 

Here is the back 40, looking out over the wetland.

Thursday, Nov. 16th Cinnamon helped me attach the baffle to the wood duck nest box. OK, maybe he was just moral support. He likes his walkies to the back 40. I lost him, and found him up a tree.

It was a lovely day, and went up to 15 C., I worked in my t-shirt.

 

cinnamon cat from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Repairs: sympathetic restoration or an honest repair?

 We watch The Repair Shop, and I heard them discussing this topic: a 'sympathetic restoration' or an 'honest repair.' Often you should not repair something with the years behind it to look as if it is new. That is a sympathetic restoration.  

Hemmings even has a definition in the automotive context: "Somewhere between fully restored and all-original is the sympathetic restoration, usually implemented to preserve as much of a car's originality as possible, while preventing it from damage and deterioration."

Then, an honest repair makes the item salvageable. It doesn't have to look pristine. My nest box was beyond both. My plan was to switch out the destroyed box with the one of two down at the frog pond. 

I'd moved this old nest box back in Feb., 2023. We had a duck nest in it in spring (Wood ducking). I was so happy. I hadn't managed to secure it properly, and the kids helped me put in more screws. I'd sympathetically repaired it with a little wooden gate on a hinge to keep the saw dust in for the ducklings.

This was an honest repair. This is an older nest box design and the wood shavings kept falling out.

This is what it looked like in 2021 (below, left). The other photo was in June of this year, after the bears ripped it apart. [Momma Bear and Two Cubs, June 6th] 

They sure did a number on it. Neither an honest repair nor a sympathetic restoration would work. My goal was to replace it with the other one, but higher up the tree. There were two cubs and they seemed eager to help Momma get into that box.

 

Here it is, I maneuvered the ladder there, having dragged it to the back 40 on the wheelbarrow. It fell off several times, but I kept on trucking.

First, to remove the old box. I climbed the ladder and removed the top screw. Next removed the bottom screw waiting for it to fall off the tree. It did not. I'd used a lag bolt during my honest repair trying to attach it to the tree, but I forgot. That was a bit of a challenge. I needed a different tool.

I ended up ripping it apart, after I got the bolt out and it fell off the tree.

Down it came. You can see the little hatch marks where the baby ducks climb up the inside wall when they move out of the box. The replacement box, repaired by Bob at Gilligalous for me, was ready to go. 

I'd worked so hard on hanging it. Up the ladder I went. It is tricky to rest a ladder on the tree. The ladder is flat, the tree round. You cannot just use one screw at the top, and one at the bottom. The boxes are made from old barn board and too heavy. I'd screwed top and bottom to another piece of wood in the old location. 

I left it there for the day. The sun is so low on the horizon that it is chilly. It snowed on Monday, this was Sunday. Happily, no freezing rain (pink).

Having done some thinking, I may have to tie off the ladder somehow. 

I shall ponder it further, waiting for a slight warm up in temperatures this week. Today, the high is only 5 C. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday?

Native Vs. Invasive Phragmites

BTW Tom: Yes, I mentioned that I have native phragmites in the frog pond. There are also invasive phragmites introduced from Europe. You can read more here: I have researched it, as I was curious. There are two different species.