Today Boxerwood met with the entire 3rd grade at Waddell to discuss best locations for six nest boxes.
As a scientific community, we agreed that we wanted to find out the answer to this question:
Will cavity-dwelling birds inhabit our schoolyard if we provide them nest boxes for raising their young?
We shared different hypotheses. Here are some of them:
If we put in the nest boxes, then . . .
- YES, the birds will use them because nest boxes will make it easy for them to move in.
- NO, the birds won’t use them because there are too many people around all the time; the birds will be scared to nest.
- NO, the birds won’t use them because there are too many predators around like raccoons and snakes.
- YES, the birds willl use them because we’ll protect the nest boxes with predator guards like the pole and wire box
As scientists, we agreed we needed to make a plan to find out the answer to our question. This plan will give us the evidence we need to make a conclusion.
Our PLAN so far:
- Figure out the best places for the nest boxes.
- Ask Ranger Pete to put up the boxes.
- Go outside each week with Ranger Pete and check the boxes.
- Record our data each time to understand what is happening.
Step 1: Figuring out the best places for the nest boxes.
We agreed we wanted to encourage these birds to nest in our schoolyard:
- chickadees
- tree swallows
- Carolina wrens
- eastern bluebirds
We researched the nesting needs of these birds and decided these things about the nest boxes:
- They need to be in open space like fields for the swallows and bluebirds.
- They can be near bushes for wrens and chickadees.
- Some nest boxes can be close to each other but bluebirds will only nest in those that are more than 100 yards apart (they fight over territory).
- They should NOT be on the ground (predators).
- They should NOT be where people are around ALL day.
- They should NOT face west where storms come from
Based on this research, we suggested some different sites for Ranger Pete to think about. Here is our map. Switch the map to SATELLITE view (warning: the Waddell B & C buildings are invisible). You can move the map around and zoom in for a closer look.