Nest Box Monitoring

It’s March and time to think about bluebirds. I have 36 nesting boxes located on the south side of Lake Arcadia at the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s Arcadia Lake Conservation Education Reserve. Before nesting season starts the boxes must be checked for needed repairs, cleaned & relocated in some cases. The first Bluebirds will start nesting usually before the end of March. The nest boxes will be checked every week to ten days for signs of use. Other than bluebirds, sparrows, wrens, titmouses, chickadees and once to my surprise a Prothonotary warbler nested in our boxes. As the babies mature and fledge the boxes are cleaned to await new tenants. Nesting generally continues until July when it gets really hot.

Contributed by Lynn Allen