Project PROTHO Nest Boxes

It was nest box building time at the Audubon Center at Francis Beidler Forest. The Prothonotary Warblers will be returning at the end of next month, so the nest boxes need to be up and ready. The boxes will be placed in areas of Four Holes Swamp that have been logged previously and therefore have few natural cavities in which the birds may nest.

Some of the nest boxes were built by the last year's summer campers, 100 nest boxes were built by the 5th graders of St. James-Gaillard Elementary School in Orangeburg Consolidated School District #3, and Rollings Middle School of the Arts continues to collect hundreds of cartons!

Over 150 of the 300 nest boxes have been built. Today, staff and volunteers worked on completing the balance. We were able to build an additional 60 boxes with the cartons on hand and painted all the nest boxes, including the ones constructed by students. Next week, staff and volunteers will begin placing the nest boxes in degraded areas of the swamp. A completed nest box can be seen on a tree outside beyond the bird silhouettes.

Check this space in April to see if Prothonotary Warblers select any of these fine student-built/collected nest boxes!

Images by Mark Musselman