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Tree swallow box at Inlet Pond |
When you walk the trails at Inlet Pond County Park you may notice that there are nest boxes, also known as bird houses, placed at the water's edge. These boxes were placed there almost 10 years ago to encourage tree swallows to nest in them. Monitoring nest boxes is a huge aspect of a successful nest box program. Unfortunately, we didn't have a person to regularly check the boxes and as a result the non-native house sparrow monopolized the boxes and virtually kept the tree swallows from successfully nesting. About 4 years ago Tom Damiani volunteered to monitor the boxes once a week The first year he discovered that nearly every one of the boxes had house sparrow nests in them. Tree swallows were in the area but did not dare try to take on the stronger and deadlier house sparrow. Fortunately, due to Tom's efforts no house sparrows fledged from the boxes. He simply removed the nests and eggs once a week, and since house sparrow eggs take 14 days or so to hatch none made it that far. The next year the house sparrows were back and so were the tree swallows. Tom repeated what he did last year, which discouraged some of the sparrows to the point of abandoning the boxes. This created an opening for the swallows to get in and nest. Sadly, for the swallows house sparrow males will often return to the nest box and defend it. This spells doom for tree swallow if it is caught inside. The house sparrow simply blocks the entrance and pecks the "intruder" to death.
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| Tree swallow box, note 2¾ inch entrance hole |
The following year Tom implemented an experimental measure that consisted of enlarging the normal 1 and ½ inch hole to 2 and ¾ inches. This coupled with a 4 inch distance from the bottom of the box to the lower part of the hole, and box hole height being no more 5 feet off the ground had been successful for some nest box trail monitors. Low and behold, it seemed that it was doing the trick! Even though male house sparrows were building nests in the boxes the females were not comfortable laying their eggs in them, so that solved the problem of fledgling sparrows, but the tree swallows still were barred from the boxes. Well, as adaptable as the house sparrow is you would guess they would figure it out and stop attempting to nest. That is exactly what happened this past nesting season. Not one box had a sparrow nest in it and about 15 tree swallow young fledged. Success at last! Just goes to show you what, perseverance and ingenuity can do.
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Anti-starling woodpecker nest box |
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Woodpecker box, note predator guard |
If you don't like starlings then you'll definitely like our anti-starling woodpecker nest box situated behind the Red House. The large, forward leaning box has a special clear plastic guard that keeps starlings out but allows tree-climbing woodpeckers to enter. The box was purchased from Native America, which is an organization that promotes native animals and plants. The box has been up for two years now but we haven't had any woodpeckers nesting. With luck we may soon see a family of flickers or red-bellies raising their young in our box.
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