Maryland DNR Bands
Large Number of Wood Ducks in 2009

DNR's Wildlife & Heritage Service has banded 830 wood ducks this season, approximately twice the number banded in recent years. "Hatch year" banded ducklings numbered 594 while 236 "older" woodies were also banded. Roughly the same number of hens and drakes were banded.

Woodies are routinely banded in various areas of Kent and Queen Anne's counties as well as several lower Eastern Shore counties. Certain federal and state park officials also band an additional number of wood ducks along the Patuxent River corridor.

This year's especially large band total seems to reflect favorable brood survival despite what appears to be a moderately lower production year (at least as reflected in MWDI's statewide survey of nesting results from more than 1,600 nest boxes). More importantly perhaps was the expanded and enhanced effort by DNR to increase its wood duck banding.

In Maryland, the 2008-09 harvest was estimated to have been approximately 7,600 wood ducks as compared to 10,500 during the 2007-08 season, based on USFWS harvest surveys. Field reports indicate that many wood ducks migrated from Maryland prior to last year's October hunting season. This does not appear to have been the case during the 2009 October early season which just ended and MWDI expects an increase in harvest this year. See Banding Reports.

Production of Maryland's woodies from artificial nesting programs relative to those actually harvested in Maryland is significant. Although only about 30% of the wood ducks hatched in Maryland may be harvested in Maryland according to historic banding data, MWDI's public lands programs produce around 6,300- 6,600 ducklings annually (2009 and 2008 seasons). Productivity from privately-sponsored programs may exceed these levels, as there are more boxes on private lands where management efforts vary widely.

If duckling brood survival averages 25-33% and some 12,000+ new ducklings leap from these boxes each year, we can reasonably project that 3,000 to 4,000 fully fledged migratory woodies have been produced, which is about 50% of the 2008-09 harvest level.

Two of MWDI's goals are to improve the estimate of Maryland's total nest box production and to help achieve "self-sufficiency" in harvest terms, i.e. Maryland's artificial nesting production exceeds its annual harvest level.

Special recognition for this banding performance goes to DNR's banding crew which includes Denny Price, Barbara Joyce, Bill Martin, Ed Cook, Tony Collins, Wade Bradford and Donald Webster.