Swallows perched on a line (photo by Arlene Koziol).
Number of young (by species) that fledged at each SoWBA property in 2024 (graph by Graham Steinhauer/SoWBA).
We love to involve the community with conservation projects, and our songbird nest box project provides an excellent opportunity for that type of positive engagement. Earlier this year, 11 nest box volunteers monitored a whopping 156 boxes at Goose Pond, Erstad Prairie, and Otsego Marsh. They reported that 500 Tree Swallows, 31 House Wrens, and 16 Eastern Bluebirds successfully fledged from the songbird boxes. That’s 547 new birds on the wing! Hundreds of swallows, some of which likely hatched in our boxes, now consistently perch in rows on the power lines around Goose Pond.
A songbird nest box with a Noel predator guard installed (photo by Graham Steinhauer/SoWBA).
Our bluebird number is low, but it’s important to remember that Goose Pond doesn’t have the abundance of short grass and scattered trees that they require. Open prairie and large shallow wetlands provide excellent foraging opportunities for Tree Swallows, making Goose Pond, Erstad Prairie, and Otsego Marsh great locations to provide housing. Bluebird populations have been rising for decades, thanks in part to people constructing and monitoring nest boxes, while Tree Swallows have declined by at least 30% since 1966. Tree swallows need more help than bluebirds now, and we’re happy to have them.
In order to maintain a successful nest box monitoring program, we sometimes need to make changes from year to year to prevent the meddling of predators. Raccoons are charismatic creatures on account of their masked faces and ringed tails, but they can be notoriously crafty and destructive. Last year, we had two trails that only successfully fledged a few birds apiece due to raccoon predation, and we fledged 3.2 birds per box on average. This year, we added Noel predator guards to all of our boxes and raccoon predation dropped dramatically. Consistent storms seemed to impact nest success this summer, but overall production was still better than last year with 3.6 birds fledging per box.
Species fledged from the program since 2015 (graph by Graham Steinhauer/SoWBA).
According to monitoring data since 2015, our next boxes have fledged 3,912 birds so far: 3,764 Tree Swallows, 61 Eastern Bluebirds, and 82 House Wrens. On behalf of all of the fledglings and their parents of 2024, we’d like to thank our monitors Laura Anderson, Bob Bennicoff, Micheal Dobiel, Bill Egbert, Linda Horvath, Amy Ihlenfeldt and Frank Iltis, Mandy Martin, Nan Rose, Ralph Russo, Kori Smith, and our summer interns for their enthusiasm and dedication to this project.
Written by Graham Steinhauer, Goose Pond Sanctuary land steward.
Check out our other features about this songbird nest box monitoring program from previous years: 2022, 2020, 2017.
More notes about our Songbird nest box monitoring program
In 2024, we had a Eurasian Tree Sparrow nest in a nest box. In Wisconsin, this is only the fourth nesting record of this invasive species and the first one occupying a box on a bluebird trail. This is a concerning first, and we’ll continue to monitor the situation.
Many years ago, Jerry Martin constructed and donated 250 high quality cedar songbird nest boxes. Some were provided to partners including Pleasant Valley Conservancy, Pope Farm Conservancy, Dane County’s Token Creek Park, and the Martin’s Wildland, LLC. These nest boxes have also been successful in fledgling songbirds.
