Nurturing wood ducks with nesting boxes
By Pearl Cantrell
Monitor Staff Writer
CEDAR CREEK LAKE–Tissie Krenek (a.k.a. The Duck Lady - a.k.a. Linda Schwartz) introduced a new group of children and their families to the world of wood ducks and ways to assist their repopulating East Texas through nesting boxes.
“Ducks in a Box” was the last presentation at the Tri-County Library’s Summer Reading Program held July 28.

Monitor Photo/Pearl Cantrell
Tissie Krenek (left) shows boys a photograph of newly hatched ducklings following a presentation on the use of a nesting box at the Tri-County Library in Mabank recently.

Krenek brought the fascinating life cycle of about eight types of perching ducks, including the magnificent wood duck merganser and regal mallard, to the community room at Tri-County Library.
When Krenek first came to the area in 1985, she hardly ever saw one of these tree-breeding ducks at the lake. By 1993, she and her husband had done enough research to launch the Cedar Creek Lake Bluebonnet Nesting Project.
And it all started with finding a duck egg in her garden and nurturing it to hatchling and independence.
As a result of her work, talks to public groups, building scores of nesting boxes and assisting her Enchanted Oaks neighbors to duplicate her efforts, there is now a breeding population of the wood duck and other breeds like them.
Populations had decreased in the early 20th century due to the draining of wetlands and the clearing of forests, especially old growth riparian forests containing many mature trees with nesting cavities.
Research of the late 1940s demonstrated that wood ducks would adapt from old growth trees to the use of nesting boxes, spurning a movement to protect wetlands and repopulate the species.
By the time Tissie discovered the plight of wood ducks, their numbers were still declining in portions of Oklahoma and Texas, even while in other parts of the country they were increasing at about 6 percent a year.
An ideal wetland for raising wood ducks has flooded shrubs and trees, such as buttonbush and black willow, substantial emergent growth and floating aquatic vegetation, open water, especially over shallow depths. These are the best place to put up nesting boxes.
Krenek described how dedicated bird watchers will keep careful count of the days so as to be on hand when the hatchlings “pop” out of the box “like popcorn” after a 27- to 32-day incubation period.
“The hen makes a weeping noise that the chicks recognize her making while she brooded over her eggs and immediately begin to follow her,” she said.
Krenek first gained designs for her nesting boxes from the Texas Department of Parks and Recreation. But a quick search of the Internet will tell someone nearly all they need to know to get started on their own nature adventure with ducks.
Cypress, cedar or just plain plywood will do for building a simple nesting box. The most important part is situating it so predators won’t have easy access to the eggs or hatchlings and to discard pine needles that starlings may bring in to take over the nest for themselves, Krenek said.
“Ducks start to scout for a nesting place in January and February, so it’s important to have boxes in place by then. It is also important not to place them too close together – no more than one every 100 yards,” she said.
The best place would be attached to a dead tree over a flooded area, but still accessible to you, so you can clean it out from time to time and check on the hen and eggs. If attaching it to a boat dock, provide adequate defences against snake intrusion by encasing the wood in white PVC piping, which is generally too slick for snakes to slither upon.
Fill the box with wood shavings (not saw dust) from a pet store, eight to 10 inches thick.
Duck feathers in with the wood chips indicates that the hen has begun to incubate a clutch of eggs. The eggs will be hidden in the wood chips, and the hen rotates them throughout the incubation period and will not leave them, except for short periods early morning and evening to eat.
Once a chick is hatched, and matured to a hen, she will return to the box to lay her own clutch of eggs. A box can carry two clutches of eggs a year, Krenek said.