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Volunteers needed to help native birds

DON BINDLER PHOTO | A bluebird returns to Mashomack Preserve — a guest of the Nestbox Project.
DON BINDLER PHOTO | A bluebird returns to Mashomack Preserve — a guest of the Nestbox Project.

By BILL ZITEK
We read every day that due to many threats — habitat loss, invasive plants and animals, toxic waste, pollution of water sources — the world is losing many species of plants and animals. We have ourselves, in some instances, contributed to these losses, but there are also many instances where by sheer effort, will and determination, we have also helped species return to viable numbers.

Shelter Island’s Mashomack Preserve is home to many species of plants and animals, and some bird species have been doing particularly well.

Bald eagles have nested and produced young over the past two years, osprey have scattered their nests all along the coastline and many migratory birds, including hawks and owls, eastern bluebirds, tree swallows and purple martins, nest there.

The eastern bluebird has been a “target species” in our bird conservation program on the preserve for the last 15 years.
Bluebirds have been visitors to the preserve for many years, but when their numbers plummeted nationwide in the 1970s, people began to recognize that this bird — our New York State bird — needed help.

Just as with the magnificent efforts to bring back the DDT-damaged osprey population by erecting nesting platforms, along with programs to help the bald eagle and peregrine falcon rebuild their populations, volunteers began building and putting up nestboxes for the cavity-nesting bluebirds and also monitoring their steady population growth, reversing the losses caused by disappearing habitat along with the constant pressure of non-native bird species such as the house sparrow and the starling.
Mashomack meadows, framed by forest edge, provide excellent habitat for bluebirds.

The efforts of many volunteers on the Nestbox Trail Project, building and placing nestboxes throughout the preserve’s eight meadows, have helped the eastern bluebird recover on eastern Long Island. Not only that, but the population of tree swallows, which share the nestbox sites, has also grown, and gourds and houses provided for purple martins are helping to increase the population of this species, which had been on a decline.

For the volunteers who participate in our Nestbox Trail Project, the chill of winter seems to suddenly subside when we open a nestbox and see a new grass nest that in several days will have a sky blue egg in it. Checking each of the 56 nestboxes on the trail once a week from March through August has resulted to date in 520 bluebirds having been fledged, as well as 1,272 tree swallows.

Want to join in and contribute to this great bird conservation effort? Our season-opening, nestbox trail informational meeting will be held on Thursday, March 31 at 5:30 p.m. at the Mashomack Preserve Visitor Center.

The natural history of the Eastern bluebird, tree swallow and purple martin will be reviewed along with information on how volunteers participate in monitoring the nestboxes. Find out more about this successful bird conservation project, meet other volunteers or just come to learn about another aspect of the natural world around you!

Call 749-1001 to let us know you will be coming or for questions. Refreshments will be served.