It's a cold morning near the All Persons Trail in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Bill, is this another way you went down or where do you go down the regular way?

Bill Blue and Mike Guillemette are already on the move.

They have some housecleaning to do.

Yeah.

We're heading down towards the Beaver pond, is what I call it.

It's not down too far, about a 500ft.

So we're going to go down there.

Mike's going to explain the program he's had with the duck boxes.

And then we're going to go over to a duck box that needs to be maintained.

Inspect it, look at the eggs and replace the bedding material for next year.

I always refer to these as the Winter desert.

I have four nest out here, starting with one in the cove over there.

You can see probably one right there.

I don't know if you can pick that up.

And then there's two others further down this way.

The boxes are nests for wood ducks.

Mike and Bill act as volunteer caretakers for them.

It's a job that came their way by chance.

I lived here for about 20 years, and I used to go down before the all persons trails, and I used to hike the mock trails.

They head down here and I eventually get off and notice this part of it.

And then about ten years ago, I moved to a new development up on the hill up there.

And so it was easier for me to come down here.

And that's where I met Bill.

Bill is Bill Foss.

We hiked with Bill a few years ago on the all Persons trail close to where we are today.

Bill's an outdoor ambassador who recruits anyone willing to walk with him in the woods.

To those who can't get outdoors, He provides recordings of wildlife like wood ducks that make the Manchester cedar swamp their home.

This is one of our boxes.

What happened about 7 or 8 years ago I was walking down here.

We had Cub Scouts in Manchester make ten wood duck boxes.

So we came out here and as I was walking out here with them, Bill Foss was right off shore and yelled over.

and thought I was with Fish and Game or the Audubon Society.

I says, no, we're just looking to put some wood duck boxes out here, because the ones that are out here are falling apart.

The roofs are all cracked, and that's how we became friends.

Mike and Bill helped Bill Foss connect people with life in the Cedar Swamp.

They set up trail cameras to capture duck activities that they themselves rarely get to see.

I download the files and send them to Bill, and he puts together his newsletter that he puts out to about 100 people about every 3 or 4 weeks, and he combines my new videos with some of his old stock videos.

You know, they'll they'll nest in the box laying anywhere from like six, 8 to 12, a dozen eggs or whatever.

And after I think 28 to 30 days, the eggs hatch and female will call up to the box and there's a little ladder inside, what we call it a little area a little, I guess it is a little ladder.

It can be made out of wire mesh or it was curved by a saw and they'll with their little picks, they'll climb up and out and they'll jump.

All in the same day, the same day.

And they only actually in the box for about 24 hours in life.

There was a time not long ago that Mike didn't know what a wood duck was.

In fact, he'd never heard of one Probably, I think around 2015 I was hunting out in a place something similar to this, and I came across a box on a tree, an old wooden box on a tree, and I was like, I had no clue what it was.

And so I asked another friend of mine who was a duck hunter, and he had told me, you know, it's a wood duck box and I like a wood duck.

I'd never even heard of that.

And then so I looked it up online and got just fascinated at the, you know, knowing these ducks are very shy the most, I think, the most beautiful duck in North America.

They are beautiful.

In the early 1900s.

Wood ducks were nearly extinct.

Market hunting and habitat loss took a heavy toll on the population.

Yeah, without the wood boxes, they would make their nest in a large hollowed out tree or an old woodpecker nest.

But obviously we've lost a lot of the old growth, you know, it's a lot smaller diameter.

So there's a lot less natural habitat for them to build a mess.

That's why people been putting wood duck boxes up for 40, 50 years at least.

I remember when I was a kid, I used to see them, but I never realized they had to maintain them the way you do every year.

I just thought they put them up and kind of leave them there.

That effort paid off.

During the past century, the population has rebounded and it continues to grow.

It's estimated that there are now more than a million of these birds along the Atlantic Flyway.

I was always out in the woods.

Whether it's hunting or just hiking, I just find that this is my element.

This is what I love to do.

And this just contributing to conservation, helping these ducks because we're losing habitat in these areas around one of the places that I maintain, four boxes they're putting in commercial development all around the wetland piece, there's hardly any trees at all.

So the boxes in there are badly needed.

But I just enjoy doing this.

I enjoy building them.

In fact, we have many hunters now, duck hunters across the state since we started this.

There's Pembroke Academy and another elementary school up in that general area, are building wood duck boxes.

I think they have 40 they're building this this winter to put out and they go, they're all free and they won't last.

All, you know, everybody on the social pages that I belong to, will grab these boxes and put them in areas like this and maintain them.

The key is maintaining them.

Mike and Bill visit the nest boxes every winter.

They inspect them, make repairs, and clean them out for the next occupants.

So I open up if it's not frozen.

Yep, I'm good if you want to look at it Mike, and see what you what you think what I can see right here unhatched wood duck eggs.

So wood duck eggs are tan in color like this.

Even though it's common that eggs are left behind, Mike says he's pleased with what his cameras witness.

And I'm seeing it.

And you are Bill, whereas 7 or 8 years ago I have 1 or 2 wood ducks swimming by.

Now I'm having 5 or 6 males.

You know, and that's pretty cool to see in the same area.

So it is definitely making a big difference.

I want to keep this going as long as I can.

And throughout the state, there's so many other hunters and conservation people doing this.

It's just wonderful to see.