I spent yesterday afternoon volunteering at the Salem AudubonNature Preserve in West Salem working on a project to provide nesting cavities
for birds. It involves drilling out an entrance hole, then removing a section
of wood and chiseling out a cavity large enough to provide space for a bird to
construct a nest. Possible tenants could be Black-capped Chickadees,
Chestnut-backed Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches, Red-breasted
Nuthatches, and possibly Bewick’s Wrens, House Wrens¸ and Downey Woodpeckers.
It’s going to be interesting to watch this spring and see if and how many get
used. --- photo courtesy of Dorald Stoltz.
Good project! I remember my mother telling me the Europeans sometimes drill out a cavity and then close the opening with a ceramic door. Sometimes the bark grows a tight seal. She always to get some of those 'doors' but never succeeded.
ReplyDeleteLooks like fun & interesting project. Nice work Jim!
ReplyDeleteJim is a welcome addition to our Wednesday morning work sessions out at the Salem Audubon Nature Reserve. He has a scientific bent and is willing to experiment with his novel approach for providing subsidized nesting cavities in big-branch oak snags to be planted later in post holes. Lee Slattum
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