Although natural cavities can be provided by leaving standing dead trees, the easiest way to supply ample nesting cavities is to build and install songbird boxes.
At Fair Meadows Sanctuary, one fact has been made abundantly clear: there is keen competition for nesting sites, both in artificial structures and in tree cavities.
The telltale sign of a Tree Swallow nest is often feathers. In some cases, there are so many feathers, you can’t even see the underlying nest structure of dry grass or pine needles.
Songbird box monitors know it is the duty of every good Tree Swallow parent to defend their young. Nine volunteers monitored 116 boxes at Goose Pond and Erstad Prairie in 2022, and reported 485 successfully fledged Tree Swallows.