Light green wooden nestboxes stand throughout the campus of the Methodist Theological School in Ohio (MTSO) and are mounted five feet above the ground on steel pipes. Lengths of PVC drain pipe hang below most of the avian nurseries to function as baffles to keep pregnant red squirrels from claiming the boxes for their own nests, and to insure that hungry raccoons and Black Rat Snakes cannot climb up to the nestboxes to devour nestlings. All pipes have small zones of fresh automobile chassis grease to deter ants and further discourage raccoons. Four species of native birds use these nestboxes to safely raise their families while enhancing the lives of all that experience the MTSO campus.
In 1977, at the young age of 32, I installed 21 bluebird nestboxes on properties occupied by MTSO, Perkins Observatory, Delaware Golf Club, and Big Ear Radio Telescope. The trail’s purpose was to provide nesting opportunities for struggling Eastern Bluebirds while creating research opportunities for students attending Ohio Wesleyan and Ohio State Universities. The project was named the OWU Trail and I routed “OWU” in the sides of the original boxes. In 1998, OWU began selling their lands and Big Ear was dismantled. Today, 26 boxes stand on the MTSO campus while six remain at Perkins Observatory, the only original parcel still owned by OWU.
The OWU trail of 31 nestboxes is one of eleven nestbox projects totaling nearly 400 nestboxes that I maintain and monitor in Delaware County. My 2013 nesting season started on March 6 when I arrived on campus to clean boxes and add grease. As I walk from box to box, I rarely walk on sidewalks and pavement, and I always wear my Ohio State Parks Volunteer ID badge on my hat or chest on all of my trails so I am not mistaken for a wandering homeless man which occasionally happens. Even though my gray beard is neatly trimmed, without my ID badge, inaccurate assumptions sometimes emerge.
I returned on April 5 expecting to find the earliest Eastern Bluebird nests and I was not disappointed when I found two. I would return every nine days or so through August in order to accurately record nesting data. By early May, nine pairs of bluebirds were raising families and their earliest first egg was laid on April 12 which is several weeks later than in years past. The last family fledged from their nest around August 10 after raising three families in the same box. Overall, bluebirds on the OWU trail in 2013 raised 85 young from 21 successful nests after 22 attempts with eggs.
Most of the nestboxes are paired to allow peaceful coexistence between bluebirds and Tree Swallows as they compete for nest sites. Since swallows are aerial feeders, they don’t compete for food with bluebirds that feed on insects from the ground. Swallows defend against other swallows out to fifteen yards from their box and inadvertently protect their blue neighbors’ box within their guarded zone. Paired boxes work with only five yards of separation. Too bad humans aren’t as easy to pacify.
Tree Swallows, also nicknamed white-bellied swallows, had a good year after laying their first egg on May 3 and fledging 55 young from 12 nests after 14 attempts with eggs.
Carolina Chickadees like to glean insects from the campus’s mature trees and they attempted three nests and two nests raised ten fledglings. Traditional bluebird nestboxes have 1-1/2″ entrances, and when I find a chickadee nest in a bluebird box, I add a plastic patch to the entrance hole with a 1-1/8-inch opening that keeps larger birds from usurping the nest site from the smaller chickadees.
Another small nester, the House Wren, raised 11 offspring from two successful nests.
All native birds pay their rent by controlling insect populations. Bluebirds inspire onlookers with their brilliant blue feathers as they drop to the ground to snatch a crawling insect and immediately return to a twig or nestbox. Chickadees are cute with their matching black crowns and chins, whereas wrens are feisty and sassy and are most comfortable in brushy habitats.
Perhaps, the most valuable nestbox inhabitant is the aerial-feeding Tree Swallow. Studies have revealed that each adult swallow consumes up to 2,000 flying insects a day and 99-percent of their prey is shorter than a centimeter, or less than one-half the width of a nickel. Deer flies and mosquitoes are on the Tree Swallows’ menu along with midges and leafhoppers. They roll 18 or more tiny insects into a ball called a bolus that they deliver to their nestlings. They feed their young more than 6,000 insects per day for each nest. When all totaled, a conservative value of more than 300,000 small insects are consumed by each Tree Swallow family during the 45-day period that they occupy a nestbox to raise a family from nest construction through fledging. Applying these numbers to the 12 successful swallow nests in 2013, swallows consumed more than 3.6 million insects.
Tree Swallows do their part in making a visit to the MTSO campus a pleasant experience by lowering the number of mosquitoes that could irritate humans and their pets, or worse yet, carry and transmit West Nile Virus and other mosquito borne diseases. Tree Swallows can be quite protective and will swoop at anyone that they perceive as intruders, but do not fear, I have never been touched by a protective Tree Swallow, but I have felt the air from their wings, which always brings a smile to my face.
Nestbox trails are beneficial for many reasons, but I feel compelled to reveal one pertinent to MTSO. As students and visitors become aware of the campus’s nestboxes and the birds that use them, hopefully they will not forget the experience. Once they leave MTSO and return to their communities, neighborhoods, and congregations, they will recognize the potential for nestbox trails and seek volunteers to help enhance their world with nestboxes. Bluebird conservationists call themselves bluebirders, and we recognize church properties with large mowed yards and cemeteries as potential habitats for “our birds.” In addition to the Eastern Bluebird, Western and Mountain Bluebirds nest in western regions of North America. And, the Violet-green Swallow is also a western species that joins and competes with Tree Swallows for nest sites.
Since the first nestboxes in 1977, the OWU Bluebird Trail has added 1,864 bluebirds, 1,273 Tree Swallows, 210 Carolina Chickadees, 688 House Wrens, and 33 Tufted Titmice for a total of 4,068 native birds to our world. I hope your future includes our feathered neighbors that share our earth with us. Help them if you can.