SWAMPSCOTT — Wood ducks flying back north from their winter nesting grounds now have a new place to stay in Harold A. King Town Forest, thanks to the Swampscott Conservancy.
Last weekend, the Conservancy installed two nesting boxes in a pond on the 47-acre property for the ducks, which usually nest in tree stumps or holes in tree trunks.
“They find a tree close to the water, so when the ducklings jump out, they land in the water,” said Verena Karsten, a Conservancy member who headed the project.
The wooden boxes, built by Karsten’s husband, Kevin Driscoll, according to instructions from the Department of Conservation and Recreation, stand on poles that rise out of the water. Black plastic “predator guards” surround the poles, which were supplied by the town’s Department of Public Works, directly below the boxes to prevent raccoons and other animals from climbing up and eating the ducklings. The boxes are then filled with leaves for the birds to use as nesting material.
Karsten, Driscoll and other Conservancy members carried the boxes and a ladder through the woods, then, wearing waders, stood on the ladder in the pond and hammered the poles into the soft pond bottom.
“We had bets on how wet we would get,” Karsten said, laughing.
According to Mass Audubon, the wood ducks usually return to the area in early to mid-March, and lay their eggs between the last week of March and the first week of April. A clutch of eggs contains between seven to 15, and the eggs typically hatch after 28 to 32 days.
Karsten explained that when the ducks leave for the winter, they scout out nesting places for their springtime return, so it’s unlikely that the boxes will be used this year, but she hopes that next year they will provide a useful home for the striking-looking ducks.
The team also built two more boxes, which they hope to install in Salem Woods.
“We’re just trying to make the world better for everybody, including the ducks,” Karsten said.
In addition to the nesting boxes, the Conservancy recently completed a project to minimize the spread of invasive Japanese Knotweed. At the forest’s entrance on Nichols Street, where the plant used to thrive, the group collaborated with the DPW to remove stalks and install a metal mesh that will prevent the plant from growing back.
“They basically prevent the native species from growing,” Karsten said of the plants, adding that homeowners should remove them if they see them. “They’re very strong, so the normal flora won’t have a chance.”
Karsten said that she and other Conservancy members spent around 25 hours last summer pulling up the plants, which can grow to be more than 10 feet tall. They would go down to the forest on Saturday mornings, going section by section.
“It spreads like wildfire where there’s sun,” Karsten said. “It’s very hard to eradicate, because you leave the rhizomes in the ground and it pops right back up.”
Last week, they installed the mesh, which has approximately half-inch squares that choke out the plants and prevent them from growing. The installation, which cost approximately $1,000, was paid for by a grant from DCR.
The DPW completed the installation last week by covering the whole area with gravel to obscure the mesh.
“What was so rewarding was you can do something with a group of people without much,” Karsten said of the project. “It was a nice collaboration with the town and Conservancy volunteers to get it done.”
