Nest-watching opportunities (and the times for those nature walks)

First of all, a clarification on our earlier nature walks article: they take place from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

And now for nesting… Drumlin Farm is looking for volunteers to train in the fine art of nest-watching. The farm is a chapter of the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch, a citizen science project that collects data on the breeding activities of birds across the country. Scientists use this data to track bird population trends and subsequently decide what conservation measures are  most needed.

Volunteer training, which takes less than two hours, will teach residents how to look for bird nests, how to approach them and when to leave them alone, and how tor cord their findings in the NestWatch database, said Drumlin Farm volunteer coordinator Pam Sowizral. Nest-watchers don’t need to venture into the forest or scale trees; they can monitor nests that species including catbirds, cardinals, titmice, chickadees, and phoebes that build their nests close to houses and sometimes even on porches and other parts of buildings.

The collected information is useful for seeing how bird habitats and populations are altering over time, particularly in this era of climate change, Sowizral said.

“By recruiting volunteers all over the country in large numbers, we can do something that individual scientists can’t,” Sowizral said.

Anyone interested (even empty-nesters!) should contact Sowizral at 781-259-2205 or psowizral@massaudubon.org.