I think @Cowboy254 just means that kiwibro is just not with us on this site, not that he has passed away.
Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)
- Thread starter mainewoods
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Hopefully you are right.
SVK, in the upper right part of your photo it appears the tree has a sheet metal wrap. I'm curious--does that protect a wood duck box or similar? I built a bunch of wood duck boxes last year, gave several to friends & family and have 2--3 to mount at my camp property around the large beaver pond. Would have mounted them already, except that they need to be protected from predation by snakes and/or raccoons. I have some sheet metal at the ready and intend to mount two boxes when I go to camp in June.
Does that sheet metal mean you have experience with wood duck boxes?
HadleyPA
ArboristSite Operative
Posted this in the homeowner helper forum where a guy was asking about how much it should cost to have a tree taken down. Thought some of you might like to see it as well. So, I hate paying to have anything done that I can do myself but even I know when to call in a pro. I have dropped lots of trees in the past, but the red oak in my front yard was way too much to do myself and was only about 10' from corner of my house. Had it brought down last July. Had 3 bids. Guy that got the job brought in a bucket truck and a chipper. One man show but gave me discount because I could help him. He was $2100 to put this one on the ground and me takeover from there. Including helping him chip all brush with his chipper. He has been in business since early 90s and said this one was in the top 12 for size of yard trees he had ever done. The butt pic shows the 660 with 42" bar he used to drop it, and obviously he still had to cut from both sides. Before he left I talked him into cutting some rounds for me. He cut 7 or 8 (can't remember which) 16-18" rounds and at that point I was finally able to cut all the way through going from both sides using my 365 with 24" bar, meaning at approximately 11-12 feet in the air this baby was still almost 4' across. I took some of the bigger limbs to a local guy and had them sawn into boards. Heck, some of the limbs were almost 2' across! Even after having the boards made I still got a wee bit of firewood. Lol!
Now thats a big tree.
Correct, there is a duck house above there.
I have build dozens of houses over the years. When doing cleanouts in the spring I have yet to find any that have been raided. Only put wrap on there because my neighbor was grumping about how mink clean out "every" duck box if there is not a predator shield. This is only the second house I have ever put a wrap below. I fasten one side of the flashing securely to the tree then wrap loosely and fasten the outside of the wrap with two shingle nails so they can be easily pulled and loosen up the wrap as the tree grows.
With that being said, snakes are not a problem up here....all we have are garter snakes and tiny red bellies, neither of which are large enough to consume an egg or a hatchling. Plus neither are climbers. If we had climbing snakes, every duck and bird house I put out would have a shield.
If you have any technical questions on any type of bird houses I am happy to help.
Oakzilla
Honyuk96
ArboristSite Operative
Looks good buddy ! That would make a dynamite hockey shooting galley.@Logger nate , bummer about the case, I should look at mine as it came from out west and probably was run with a longer bar because the guy logged with it . That is the most common problem I've seen with them, but it's the only problem I've seen on multiple units so all in all that's pretty good, too bad it's not easier to replace.
It there a crack on the other side of the stud going down at a similar angle.
I would contact stihl and see what they have to say about it, maybe they will come up with a better case half like they did with the husky 371 that had more gussets in in.
That chicken coop of your sons is sweet, does he already have a bunch of chickens.
Been working on ours when it's not raining, it seems every time I wanted to get on it this week it would start raining, yesterday was my first full day, and Friday I got a nice bit of time on it too bending the poles.
I cleared the dirt back from the poles on the outside to bring the fence out on the ground a bit so the coons done dig under it. All that topsoil I added to an area behind the coop that I tilled up earlier this spring for the first time for my wife, I'm trying to level it out a bit, if I have any extra materials I'll fence it in and use the back side of the coop for one of the walls. Last night I ran to HD for some quickcrete and put two of the 4 poles in that the ends of the fence will be attached to. I have a 6'x7' tall gate/door I'm installing on the end to access the run, it's big enough to get either tractor in and clean up or dump fresh gravel. If the woodshed gets any fuller I'll need to put some roofing material on it and I could park another tractor in there, got any metal left over.
Made in china. I used a friends pipe cutter and bender, he threw the post driver in there too, good thing a friend gave me one he built a few yrs back.
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I stood on the stump of the original oakzilla and even noodles a few pieces of it when I visited Zogger in his better days.
Do you find height above ground to be critical for the boxes? Or any other matters of placement that matter?
I'm a bit skeptical about how pervasive the predation could be, given that the boxes are meant to mimic natural tree cavities in which the birds would normally nest. If snakes, coons, or mink were actually that great a problem, how did we have the healthy wood duck population of the past? I remember that in my duck-hunting heyday of the 1970s we had a ton of woodies. Those things would come whistling in like Kamikazes and shoot into the standing deadwood in beaver ponds. I was all set to resume duck-hunting now that I'm semi-retired, until my good friend and dedicated hunter, Doug, told me that he's quit shooting ducks for the time being due to the decline in population. I must say that I enjoy watching them almost as much as shooting them, and there's no feather plucking at the end of the day.
We do have snakes in northern NY where my camp property is. The water snakes are pretty impressive, and common black snakes away from water are the same. Both are accomplished climbers. Out at Doug's camp (on an island in a lake) they will raid every one of his bird houses if Doug doesn't shoot them first.
I was discussing my wood duck houses with Doug and he told me that he found a wood duck hen who had nested WAY BACK in the woods, maybe a 1/4 mile from water--he watched her kick the young out of the nest and lead them on the long trek to the lake.
In NY, I believe both Black Racers and Rat Snakes get fairly large and can climb well.
Water snakes are nasty, but I never knew they climbed.
I would not want to mess with a Rat Snake either, but Black Racers often seem to have no fear or aggression towards people.
Rat Snakes and Black Racers are both constrictors, but Water Snakes and Garter Snakes are not, they just bite and swallow their prey.
Water snakes are nasty, but I never knew they climbed.
I would not want to mess with a Rat Snake either, but Black Racers often seem to have no fear or aggression towards people.
Rat Snakes and Black Racers are both constrictors, but Water Snakes and Garter Snakes are not, they just bite and swallow their prey.
When I lived on the farm in Oklahoma we had a large pond that had some big snakes in it. There was a rats nest of roots & small limbs that had accumulated on the pond dam and the water snakes denned up in there. I would try to get as close as possible for a good look, creeping up on the dam to find them before they spotted me and skedaddled. We were not far from where cottonmouths (water moccasins) lived, but ours were common water snakes, I believe, but I was often after a good close look to be sure.
I crept up slowly toward the snake den one time and surprised two sizable specimens that had been napping on the bank. While watching the water and the rats nest of sticks I managed to step right into these two which went to writhing every which way as I danced between them. The three of us had a lively time till they made for the water.
I crept up slowly toward the snake den one time and surprised two sizable specimens that had been napping on the bank. While watching the water and the rats nest of sticks I managed to step right into these two which went to writhing every which way as I danced between them. The three of us had a lively time till they made for the water.
No real sure fire guarantees. Closer to water the better. They often nest multiple times a year and then may not use that box for several years. And although it’s best to clean out the box each year, I’ve had some they had several hatchs of eggs and even dud eggs buried in the nest and the next mama just covered everything with down and had another successful hatch.
I normally put out standard wood duck/hooded merganser houses. I also have one set up for common mergansers as well. I’ve seen them go in but nobody mastered yet so I’m wondering if perhaps the hole is big enough but the box is not. My neighbor used to have separate houses for them in the boxes were a little bit larger.
One note about predators: if you think back to our fathers and grandfathers generations, almost every young man trapped furbearers. As a result all types of game animals flourished because there were almost no raccoons, mink, Pine Martin, Fisher, weasel, fox, coyote, or wolves to kill game animals. At this point the price of fur is so low as well as everyone’s infatuation with predator animals comes at the cost of predation on prey species.We as conservation minded Sportsmen need to lead the charge for sensible control of predator species. If someone thinks that hawk, Fox, or mink, is cute.....That’s fine but they need to understand what those animals do for a living.
Took the firewood scrounge locating tool out for a ride, got distracted by the views
Pretty sure there’s some nice dead standing red fir out there somewhere that will need cut this weekend..
Pretty sure there’s some nice dead standing red fir out there somewhere that will need cut this weekend..
This is correct, I expect Kiwi is still physically alive, just not virtually alive on this platform. Unfortunately, this forum and PM service was my only means of contact and since he left so abruptly, I have lost track of him.
I feel the same as you about predators. I don't think they should be eliminated from the landscape but there should be some pressure put on their populations. The antis have this utopian idea that if we let everything go back to nature that nature will balance itself. The problem is we have influenced the landscape so that now we need to manage all species. I wish I had time to trap. Definitely an almost lost art.
Predator control is very polarizing. The animals are "cute and cuddly". I'd ask anyone who is against wolf hunting to take their dog to go meet a wolf pack and see how cute they are then! The original wolf reintroduction plan here in WI called for around 375 wolves as a target number. Now there's over 1k. Guess what, deer hunting is suffering. That was a huge part of the economy in the northwoods. I know a number of deer camps that have dissolved due to low deer numbers. Wolves aren't 100% to blame but they have part in it.
I'll get off my soapbox.
Lee
I have heard it said that there is no such thing as a balance of nature; Nature deals in excesses.
Beautiful country! Thanks for sharing.
I’ll look. They are from 1X12 pine. I know I have made some modifications to the original plan. But they have 24” walls, 3” high by 4” wide entry hole.
