Nest Success! CCF’s Bird Box Program Takes Off
This past spring, CCF unveiled a new wildlife initiative: the bird box program. After significant progress on two meadow restoration projects, our Stewardship team thought those locations would be perfect for nesting birds. CCF staff and volunteers partnered with Harwich Conservation Trust to create ten bird boxes. We used cedar wood and a design from the North American Bluebird Society, although the design can accommodate other birds as well.
We put the boxes up in March of this year, divided between the Nickerson Meadow and the Vanderbilt Meadow. We documented the use of the nest boxes using NestWatch, a countrywide citizen science program run by the Cornell School of Ornithology. We expected maybe a few boxes would be used this first year and hoped for a couple of fledglings, but we were surprised at how active the boxes were. Bluebirds, tree swallows, black-capped chickadees and house wrens built nests inside the boxes. We plan to leave them up and hope next year to have even more nest success.
Would you like to get involved in helping native bird species? You may be interested in joining the CCF birding volunteers to help us monitor the boxes every year. Email Eli (technician@ccfinc.org) to learn more about monitoring and how to get involved. Or you could put up a bird box in your own yard! A recent blog post on our website contains links to the blueprint. But if either of these options are out of reach for you, feel free to just visit the Nickerson Meadow and enjoy watching these boxes foster the next generation of native birds next spring!
Interested in building your own bird box? Check out these blueprints from the North American Blue Bird Society to help get you started. Don't forget to share us photos of your finished product!
Land Steward Technician Eli, and Volunteer Fi installing a box at the Nickerson Meadow
