The break in the weather caused me to think about plans that I had made to check some duck boxes along the Slippery Rock Creek.

Each spring before the ducks fly north, I like to check on the conditions of the boxes, empty out old nesting materials and add new chips and sawdust. Once in a while, I will find that other creatures have made it a home, too.

Squirrels, mice, owls and even snakes have been in the boxes … thus I proceed with caution and use a garden trowel to reach into the depth of the boxes. I have used both plastic DU boxes and hand made wooden boxes and the ducks are preferential to the real wood.

My old pal Jimmy Bonetti likes to tinker with wood, so it looks like we will be making a visit to the Amish lumber mill for scraps of hemlock, larch and pine. The rougher the better!

Placing the boxes is more difficult than building them. (Location, location, location.) Finding the right home location is the key to a good nesting site. If an area near water is covered with too much human imprint. the ducks will likely avoid it. They do like to have some secrecy and quiet in raising their brood.

That being said, I have also seen ducks nest in the strangest places that you would never expect any self-respecting duck to show up at. We had a duck build a nest on top of our office building roof when it was covered with rain water. It had one of those flat roofs and it was not draining right, so the ducks put it to good use and had a brood on the roof.

The gang at work tossed treats out to the ducks and they made it off to a local storm drain pond when the ducklings were old enough. We then put in our work order for a roof drain repair!

Sand hill cranes

This week also found me cutting brush and making rows of habitat along a trail. The brush piles were nasty business with multi flora rose, green brier and crab apple branches.

The birds and other wildlife will be happy for that cover this spring when they start looking for cover and nesting sites.

While we were cutting and stacking brush, we heard some unusual large bird calling out. My companion John Farrell identified them as sand hill cranes. I have heard of the sand hill crane out on the Platte River Valley and in the dunes in Michigan, but not around Butler County.

This called for some investigation, thus, I reached out to some of my contacts to find out more about the potential for the sand hill crane to be in our area. First of all, John was right, they were a pair of sand hill cranes and easily recognizable once you see a photo and know what you are looking for in this bird identification.

The history of the sand hill crane is that it migrates through the area from Siberia and northern climate areas of North America and they can number in the thousands. But I guess we were lucky to have a pair deciding to hang out in Butler County.

Hunters reported the pair during deer season and they had no clue as to what these birds were. In trying to describe them, we guessed that they were green herons, great blue herons, or some other kind of local wading bird species.

Now we know and all of my friends can be assured that they are not going crazy when hearing the cranes raucous calls.

Trout stocking

In talking to Jon Kay, Butler County WCO for the PFBC, it’s getting close to the annual trout stocking program. He invites residents to participate in the trout stocking program as the local trout streams get rainbow, brown and brook trout from the hatcheries.

Every part of the county will be getting trout from Glade Run Lake to Bear Creek to Buffalo Creek to the Slippery Rock Creek areas.

Check out the PFBC website and they have a calendar of trout stocking dates that will let you know dates and meeting locations.

Do you folks remember when that was the biggest secret of the Fish Commission?! What was the stocking dates and times … I knew guys that made it a covert operation to figure out that information.

They would have a phoning tree set up to let all of their buddies know when the stock truck was rolling by them. Wow, how things have changed. One fellow who was noted for taking an extra fish over the limit complained to me about the creel limit being reduced from eight to five trout daily.

I laughed and said to him, “What’s the difference if you make five trips of eight fish or eight trips of five!”

Until we meet again, get out there and purchase your 2018 fishing license and obey the rules!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle