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Feature- Commitment To Nesting Waterfowl Earns State Park Volunteer Honors
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Early autumn has come to Luzerne County’s Nescopeck State Park: a forest once cloaked in green anonymity now shouts its bold independence. Reflections of scarlet red and burnt orange now dance on the pond waters before you. The air is crisp, wafting mixed scents of leaf mold and evergreen. You breathe deep, savor the bucolic beauty, and wonder if nature ever could improve on such a spot. (Photo: Steven Smetana (center) receives award from Michael Dinsmore, Assistant Manager Hickory Run State Park and Tara Gettig, Environmental Education Specialist with DCNR.)
And just then, it does. On softly whistling wings, a brace of wood ducks circles twice above sun-dappled waters, sets wings, and glides softly into your memory. The hen is barely discernible -- a dainty, bobbing form of muted brown that sets the stage for her showboat companion. His beauty shouts at you -- swirls of crimson, green, white merge in a feathered collage that has you asking aloud: “Could there be a more beautiful bird in Pennsylvania?”
Steve Smetana doesn’t think so. For more than eight years now, the Schuylkill County resident has been committed to helping the wood duck; for much of his lifetime he has appreciated its beauty -- from hiking paths, fishing boats, even duck blinds of his earlier autumns. The former waterfowler is a firm believer in repaying favors, and Nescopeck, other state parks and state forests, he said, have given him much.
And, fortunately, he also believes in sharing a wealth of natural beauty he has come to know so well. His dedication to the wood duck has seen no less than 300 young birds take flight over park woods and waters.
Eight years ago, Nescopeck State Park’s rolling woodlands, scattering of ponds and abundance of vernal pools already were home to wood ducks. A smattering of wood duck nests already drew some the cavity-nesting waterfowl -- but not many. Enter Smetana, park volunteer, carpenter, budding naturalist and wood duck expert, and retired cable company manager.
“Steve initiated the wood duck project back in 2002 when he noticed a few boxes that were put up by local high school students had fallen in disrepair and weren’t being checked,” said Diane Madl, environmental education supervisor at Nescopeck. “Since that time Steve currently maintains and monitors 50 boxes throughout the park.
“Steve has prepared a map of each box, its location and condition, and often is seen carrying replacements in a basket on his back as he does his box preparations each season. The boxes are located in remote areas within the park that are not easily accessed. Occasionally he has help … but for the most part Steve is out there on his own.”
For his efforts, the 70-year-old McAdoo resident recently was named DCNR’s 2009 Cavity-Nesting Monitor of the Year Award. The honor does not come easy to the volunteer who combs Nescopeck’s 2,981 acres, carting around the heavy wood nesting boxes; then erecting, monitoring, and cleaning them; and refilling with fresh cedar shavings. Never any doubts about the cause, he said, but there was one incident that left him wondering about the physical cost:
“I used to put the nesting boxes up higher, about six feet, and I had to carry a ladder around with me,” Smetana recalled. “The ground was frozen, the ladder twisted. I slipped, and found myself being dumped into the creek below. Luckily, it was low at that time or I would have been washed downstream.”
Aside from a honed respect for ladders, Smetana said just about every day on the wood duck box trail is a new learning experience:
“There’s a reason why the females seek out the vernal ponds to nest,” the volunteer points out. “Often they are secluded and so rich in nutrients and insect life the mothers and young need.
“By March 1 I have to have the nesting boxes out, cleaned and ready to go,” Smetana said. “From then to the end of May, first week of June, eggs are laid, hitched and then they’re out and gone, and I’m done with them.”
Not quite. Smetana’s legacy lives in the annual reports he compiles: 2002 – 36 boxes, fledged 32 wood ducklings; 2003 – 36, 23; 2004 – 49, 24; 2005 – 49; 43; 2006 – 47, 72; 2007 – 50, 45; and 2008 – 50 boxes, 71 wood ducks fledged and 9 hooded mergansers.
“Yep, we’ve come a long way from when I first started,” Smetana recalled. “Then there were only one or two boxes and they would produce only 15 eggs in a spring. Now the broods are larger, sometimes up to 12 or 13, and I know some are returning year after year. Mergansers are showing up, too.”
Threats to hatchlings? Weather sometimes rears its deadly head, along with human intrusion and the inability of an occasional duckling to climb from the nesting box, but Smetana says the real threat comes from four-legged intruders.
“Raccoons are the bad guys. They’ll destroy a nest of eggs, along with an occasional fisher,” the volunteer said. “Right before they hatch, that’s when the ducks are most vulnerable. The hen starts communicating with the young, there’s peeping back and forth early in the morning before she flies off, and the predators hear this noise, get into the box and destroy all the eggs.”
Patience is the watchword, Smetana said, for folks who have erected wood duck boxes, but failed to draw nesting tenants.
Erect boxes on poles rather than trees, and away from brushy areas to deter predators, he suggests. Seek out sunny areas close to water that are visible to ducks as they traverse waterways in early spring in search of nesting sites.
“Not all boxes will be occupied,” Smetana said. “You have to remember, I had 50 boxes produce a total of 131 eggs, but they were laid in only 15 of those boxes. The rest often are taken over by gray and flying squirrels.”
Smetana always has had time for “his” state park. A fixture at Nescopeck, his contributions have included serving on historical committees, clean-up crews, native tree and shrub planting groups; leading hikes and angler programs; and the placement of bat and bluebird boxes.
“I just enjoy it all, just one of saying thanks for all the enjoyment state parks have offered me,” the volunteer said. “I do know there are some other state parks that could use a helping hand with their wood duck nesting box efforts. Many of the parks have the birds, the water and the habitat.
“They just need someone to step forward and volunteer to offer a helping hand.”
Some already have. The Bureau of State Parks cavity-nesting-monitoring program, marking its 28th year in 2009, now involves 49 of the 117 state parks across the state, according to Tara E. Gettig, environmental education specialist with the Bureau of State Parks.
The nesting box trails program has involved over 150 volunteers, ranging in age from high school students to some in their upper 80s. They check some 1,800 nesting boxes across the state in individual park efforts that monitor from five to more than 175 nesting boxes.
Commitment to the nesting-box program is not new, Gettig noted. More than 15 of the volunteers have been checking nesting boxes; cleaning and repairing them; jotting notes; and hiking trails for over 20 or more years.
“The Bluebird Trails Program began with the intent of reestablishing the bluebird population, but the program is beneficial to other native cavity-nesting species as well,” Gettig said. “For the third nesting season now, increased data are being offered by trail volunteers on a wider range of cavity-nesting species, such as wood ducks and flycatchers. The focus is better captured in the name change from the Bluebird to Cavity-Nesting Trails Program.”
Volunteers last year oversaw the fledging of 2,083 Eastern bluebirds and 2,852 other cavity-nesting species.
“This number brings the grand total to a new milestone of over 50,000 Eastern bluebirds fledged since 1981,” Gettig said. “Specifically, volunteers in the program so far have fledged 50,120 eastern bluebirds and 31,664 other cavity-nesting species.”
For more details on the Cavity-Nesting Trails Program, contact Gettig at 717-783-3344.
(Reprinted from March 17 issue of DCNR's Resource newsletter)
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3/22/2010 |
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