Courtesy of Richard Hinton and the Bismarck Tribune

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Cub Scout, Delta Waterfowl project aimed at helping mallards, wood ducks

By RICHARD HINTON, Bismarck Tribune

On the last day of winter, a half-dozen Cub Scouts and a contingent of adults were looking past the first day of spring and all the way into fall -- and far beyond.

Toiling on an ice-covered wetlands east of Bismarck Saturday, the group was doing its part to provide sanctuary and help foster mallards and wood ducks in small areas of this duck factory known as the Prairie Pothole Region.

When their work was done, 10 new hen houses were awaiting their first guests at a waterfowl production area east of Bismarck, and a smattering of wood duck boxes was standing tall, as well.

The Cub Scouts worked alongside a blend of parents, scout leaders, members of the local Puddle Jumpers chapter of Delta Waterfowl and a staffer from the conservation group's Bismarck headquarters.

"It was exciting for me," said Scott Terning, a regional director for Delta Waterfowl. "It was a successful day for the (Puddle Jumpers) committee, the pack and, most of all, the ducks."

Cubmaster Dave Sagsveen agreed.

"It's a big help to Delta," he said as the work party took a roadside lunch break south of McKenzie. "We both get something out of it, and the kids get their achievements."

The hen houses went up first, three on a small pothole on a portion of the McKenzie Waterfowl Production Area and the remaining seven around the edges of the larger wetland south of McKenzie. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided guidelines on which Burleigh County WPAs needed more houses.

The houses are made of straw and wire that are rolled into tubes and set on posts that are driven deeply into the bottom of a good-sized pothole. Mallard hens primarily take advantage of the elevated structures because they offer protection from predators. Without the houses, mallard hens nest on the ground in cattails or grasses, where the vulnerable eggs can be a buffet for raccoons, skunks and other predators.

Plans call for the scouts and Delta members to monitor the houses throughout the nesting season, and the scouts will be able to keep a log on what species are using the houses, how many eggs are on the nest and other pieces of information.

"We'll try not to do too much so we don't bug them," Cub Scout Andrew Weiland, 9, said of the future monitoring effort.

He was perched on the tailgate of a pickup as he ate a sandwich, washing it down with a cold drink. Fellow Cub Scout Austin Teunissen, also 9, stood as he used the lowered tailgate as a table while he munched on his sandwich.

As they ate, the scouts were serenaded by hundreds of Canada geese that were passing by.

The two Cub Scouts are members of Pack 117, Den 2, at Dorothy Moses Elementary School, where 21 Cub Scouts from five dens helped build 36 wood duck boxes. The boxes serve as substitutes for woodpecker cavities that are the wood duck's preferred nesting spots. And the boxes seem to do well in North Dakota because of the relative dearth of trees.

Austin said the project was good for the scouts and great for the ducks.

The scouts earn achievements in conservation and woodworking. They also will be able to showcase the project at the Scout Show next month in Bismarck.

Delta Waterfowl studies of hen house usage in Manitoba have shown occupancy rates of more than 80 percent, and nesting success is typically at 80 percent or more, said Joel Brice, a Delta Waterfowl biologist.

"We're hoping to have that success rate down here," he said Monday. "The hen houses will greatly outperform anything a duck does on the ground by itself."

Ducks need a 15 percent to 20 percent success rate for a local population to maintain itself, Brice said. Mallard hens typically lay between eight and a dozen eggs.

"It's not uncommon to find nest success below that range over the Prairie Pothole Region," Brice explained. "It's considered a function of the amount of grass on the landscape. The less grass, the more concentrated the ducks and the predators."

The Puddle Jumpers got the project up and rolling by using their share of money raised at last year's banquet to buy the hen houses. Local Delta chapters are able to keep a portion of fund-raising proceeds to spend on local projects. Delta folks also cut the wood for the wood duck boxes that the scouts assembled.

Terning ramrodded the project, and now he and everyone involved with it are waiting and watching for the arrival of ducks.

"It would be nice if we knew the time frame, but that's part of the process and part of the excitement," he said. "When or if they will occupy them, that's the exciting part."

Although hen houses can go up anytime of year, Terning wanted this batch to be ready for the northward-bound ducks. That the ice -- 6 to 8 inches in some places but weaker at other spots -- was thick enough to support the workers was a bonus. With the houses going up around the edges of the wetland, the shortest route to the other side was a straight line across the ice. And no one fell through, either.

The wood duck boxes were another matter. There was no water under the ice, creating solidly frozen ground.

If the posts aren't driven in deeply enough they can tip over or possibly be bent, Terning said.

"There wasn't a whole lot we could do."

They managed to put up three boxes on one WPA west of Menoken, but the setback is only temporary. The 17 others will go up later, when the ground is softer and the sore muscles from driving the posts into the ground fade away.

"It was a positive experience for everybody," Terning said. "The hen houses went up slick. We couldn't ask for anything better. It went better then planned."

(To learn more about hen houses or Delta Waterfowl, visit its Web site at http://www.deltawaterfowl.org. Reach reporter Richard Hinton at 250-8256 or outdoors@bismarcktribune.net.)

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Copyright 2005 Bismarck Tribune. Republished here with the permission of Bismarck Tribune. No further republication or redistribution is permitted without the express approval of the Bismarck Tribune.