Fisher/Owl/Duck Drama at the Artificial Tree

[Alfred Maley]

This morning I was watching the duck boxes in the yard just after 5 AM when I noticed a bush moving. A fisher leaped from the bush onto the base of the artificial tree, which has two occupied duck boxes. It was attempting to get past the flashing when out of nowhere a Barred Owl strafed the fisher, causing it to leap to the ground and scurry away. A couple of minutes later, the female Hooded Merganser that has just started incubating in the lower box (and about four feet above the flashing) poked her head out to see what was going on. She remained there for five minutes or so, then flew off for breakfast..

There are four ducks nesting in the boxes in the yard this year - three woodies and one hoodie. The hoodie had a dispute with the Great Crested Flycatchers who had planned on using that box again this year after good success last year. On Thursday they piled several inches of pine needles on top of the 7-8 merganser eggs. I removed the pine needles twice, but it wasn’t until Mrs. Merganser showed up in the evening to start incubating the eggs that the flycatchers desisted. They are now looking at a different (empty) duck box and hopefully will have success.

I assumed that Barred Owls would attack fishers but I’d never seen it before. Linda saw one attack a raccoon last year, so they know their enemies.

All of my boxes have flashing which deters raccoons but only the boxes on posts with flashing can deter fishers. One Wood Duck nest on a tree was fisher-predated even though the tree itself was flashed - fishers can leap from adjacent trees.

The artificial tree is my attempt to exclude gray squirrels from the duck boxes, but it has proved to be an attraction to hawks, owls and vultures - but no eagles (yet).

Al Maley
Hampstead, NH