Volunteer and long-time birder, Stan Wakefield, shares regular updates and pictures on bird nesting activity at BRLT’s bird boxes monitored at Oak Point Farm, Singing Meadows, Lobster Cove Meadow, Penny Lake, and Zak preserves. Data is also reported to NestWatch, a citizen-science monitoring program developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and used nationwide to track the status and trends in the reproductive biology of birds. We encourage readers to check back frequently from April-August to keep up on all of the changes throughout the season.
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Happy Spring to all! The bird breeding season is officially underway on at least one of our Land Trust preserves. An inspection of nest boxes at Singing Meadows on Saturday revealed the presence of no less than three Eastern Bluebird nests. As of yesterday, no eggs had been deposited in these nests, but that is likely to change in the near term. This indicates that many of our year-round resident Bluebirds are reclaiming nest boxes they used last year. As the migration season warms up, we expect to see Tree Swallows and more Bluebirds claiming nest boxes as well. Nests will likely begin to appear on other Land Trust preserves in the coming days and weeks.
Last year’s warmer-than-usual summer is believed to have caused the loss of a few Bluebird and Tree Swallow nestlings before they could fledge. Heat buildup inside some nest boxes simply became too much for the youngsters to endure. As a result, we’ve modified some nest boxes to reduce or eliminate heat stress. You may see some nest boxes on our preserves with a white roof or a roof with a smaller, square piece of wood on top. These are the modified nest boxes that will hopefully reflect solar heat and/or shade the main roof to keep the interior from excessive heat buildup. If these nest boxes are successful in reducing or eliminating heat stress, we’ll modify more of them in the Fall.
The annual spring bird migration is only just getting started for us in Maine. On your walks through our preserves be on the lookout for some of the many colorful migrant birds working their way north. The migration won’t really peak until May when thousands of birds will return to their traditional breeding grounds in Maine and points north.
