With only a few remaining sites to have their nest box estimates developed and documented, the following tables represent our projections as of April 1, 2011.

There are a few project sites to visit although it appears that the hatch from public lands will exceed the revised 2009 level and may reach 6,900, a 5% gain. An audit of the 2009 estimates has been 99% completed as actual results became available where partial estimates were used last year. Instead of the 6,378 ducklings previously estimated for 2009, it now seems likely that the hatch will modestly exceed 6,600. The significance for 2009 is that production was basically even with 2008 instead of modestly lower.

This reconciliation result together with the modest rise now projected for the 2010 season suggests that MWDI’s expressed concerns about the impact of the 3 bird daily limit may have been modestly overstated. However, there were 170 additional boxes in 2009 over 2008 and about 100 more in 2010 over 2009; all things being equal, with that many more functional boxes in 2009 & 2010 together with a growing maturity of certain programs, larger gains might have readily occurred. Nesting conditions were also very good in 2010 and the impact of these variables relative to the harvest of Maryland’s woodies during the 2009-10 hunting season remains to be seen in the 2011 season to come.

Early season favorable nesting habitat in 2010 seemed especially attractive to hooded mergansers (HM) as nests were up significantly. We do not have data from Liberty and Loch Raven Reservoirs for 2010 (an active HM nesting areas) but at Millington WMA, HM went from 3 to 8 nests and at McKee Beshers to 18 from 6. Other less frequent HM nest sites were about on par. We also found an HM nest in Cecil Co, a first.

MWDI will have about 85 new capacity boxes installed this season if active and planned projects all get implemented. The total number of project sites could exceed 77. Since the 2004 nest season, public lands projects have produced more than 21,000 ducklings through the 2010 season. Functional boxes were 874 then and are now 1,824. In 2004, it was estimated that 1,910 ducklings were hatched from 26 sites.

Some of these changes are perplexing, especially at Jug Bay. Chesapeake Farms was partially off due to a real starling surge and a couple of snakes. Patuxent reflected a more “normal” drop in 2009 probably from harvest in all likelihood and then a moderate rebound as our average stats suggest. Chicamicomico results also reflected a favorable rebound while Millington’s woodies really responded to excellent spring habitat and perhaps, a general nesting rebound seen elsewhere.