Dan Andrews Posted February 20, 2008 Report Share Posted February 20, 2008 Well I hooked up with Bones (AKA John last week to clean and hang duck nesting boxes. John and I met at the Fort Erie club and prepped 6 boxes for hanging. Our intention was to clean the approximately 12 boxes out there and hang 6 more in new locations. Unfortunately despite the cold snap we have experienced, it still wasn't enough to make the creeks safe enough to walk on. We spent allot of time finding other ways to reach the boxes and did allot of walking around carrying equipment only to find that most of the boxes needed replacing anyway. We didn't bother with a few of the boxes we could reach because the hole had been widened beyond repair. One box contained 2 squirrels which rocketed out the hole just above my head. My heart pounding from the flash of fur, claws and sharp teeth, I decided just to hang another box. I just couldn't throw the squirrels out in the cold in the middle of February. Another box was solid full of paper wasp nest! I won't be doing this work over the summer months for sure! When we approached 6 mile creek at Thunder Bay Rd we couldn't believe our eyes. The extent of damage from the beavers was significant. Hundreds of trees were either chewed or downed by beavers even right at roadside! We had trouble locating some of the boxes and forgot the GPS to prevent this next year but one missing box was finally spotted. Apparently the beaver chewed the tree because he wanted to live in the duck box. When he discovered he couldn't fit in the hole, he chewed down a bunch more trees looking for a bigger house! It all makes sense now! So after erecting a bunch of new boxes where storms or animals had torn down some old ones and not being able to reach many other boxes, we only got part of the job done . I continued the next day by myself and erected 2 new boxes where before there were none. If you see these boxes anywhere, please let me know where and if you witnessed any activity in them. The new ones all look like this. Notice my tree of choice were the Carolinians which stood out in the bush from the rest. Thank you very much John AKA Bones for coming out to help me. I got allot more done then if I did it myself. Hopefully I will be able to GPS every box so others can help next year if I'm not available. If anyone else would enjoy doing this sort of stuff, the Fort Erie Conservation Club would love the help to both construct and clean/hang them annually. Buy a membership, come to a couple of meetings and get involved with these little projects. I Love doing this but if someone else wants to take it over, there are always plenty more things a guy can do to help the environment Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smerchly Posted February 20, 2008 Report Share Posted February 20, 2008 That tree looks like a perfect camo tree to put up a stand ! It looks like a sycamore tree like the ones that line both sides of Queenston St. at Victoria Lawn cemetary . And I posted a pic.last year of huge sycamore trees along the upper 12 mile creek . Good work Dan........gotta do something about them beavers ......like a free trip to Temagami ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bones Posted February 24, 2008 Report Share Posted February 24, 2008 It was a fun day helping out Dan, and a real eye opener. I couldn't believe the destruction caused by the beavers. I understand chicken wire wrapped around the trees a minimum of three feet will stop them. At least they haven't dammed any creeks yet. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightfisher Posted February 24, 2008 Report Share Posted February 24, 2008 Well done John on giving Dan a hand. He's always looking for a few good guys out his way to help with the responsibility he has taken on. And as you said, there's enjoyment to be had, as well as some good learning experiences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwl Posted February 24, 2008 Report Share Posted February 24, 2008 well, glad you got out there for a bit Dan, and John, it hasn't worked out this season so far for me to be able to help ya out Dan, every time it was possible I could the weather was either too crappy, or too warm. Not sure if you have more of them to do for this season , just let me know and I will see if I can help out around the wife's work schedule and stuff...gotta remeber too though..that our little ones go to school at opposite times...mine goes in the morning. Hey John, next mission pretty soon will be helping the MNR with the walleye tagging ect again...looking forward to that, I am sure you will be coming out again too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basskicker09 Posted February 25, 2008 Report Share Posted February 25, 2008 let me know next time you are going out i wouldnt mind giving a hand and my girl friend would probably get a kick out of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crofeather Posted February 26, 2008 Report Share Posted February 26, 2008 Dang Dan, you are one busy beaver. I love this type of story where a user of the environment tries to give a little something back and the adventures in so doing add to the flavour of the tale. You definitely do more then your share. Keep up the good works. Just wondering though the success rate of this project if you have any idea. Also, do you have any good net sites on this subject (building and hanging the boxes and etc), I'm always interested as I am sure others would be even though we may or may not actually get into the doing part (is too bad we don't have a resource guide connected here on the forums to quickly direct us to good reference materials and sites, its such a pain wading through so many useless sites when a fellow member has some decent information sitting right at his or her finger tips). Keep up the good works and Thank You for giving so much of your time and energy in so many of these type of projects . Hope to see more of this type of story both by yourself and any of the other members. Crofeather Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwl Posted February 26, 2008 Report Share Posted February 26, 2008 I am sure it wouldn't be much of a problem to get you dimensions ect for the nesting boxes...the FECC makes them, other bird houses and bat houses..I think Dan may also have a couple of the duck boxes that he could get dimensions for ya from Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigugli Posted February 26, 2008 Report Share Posted February 26, 2008 I am sure it wouldn't be much of a problem to get you dimensions ect for the nesting boxes...the FECC makes them, other bird houses and bat houses..I think Dan may also have a couple of the duck boxes that he could get dimensions for ya from Get your hands on an older boy scout or cub scout manual. They have patterns for 12 different types of bird box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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