We are all familiar with the sound of a woodpecker drumming on a tree searching for food or building a nest site. But what about the many other bird species that nest deep inside tree limbs but don’t have the means to create their own home? They have to use cavities created by other birds or natural holes that are formed when dead and decaying limbs fall from older trees. Over the past 150 years, riparian forest habitat has been greatly reduced throughout the state. Even with the great work that’s been done restoring some of our riparian forest habitat in recent years, many of these areas simply won’t have enough old trees with natural cavities in them to provide adequate nest sites for many years. So what can we do about it?
Join the Laguna Creek Watershed Council this Sunday as we lend a helping hand (wing?) to some of our feathered, cavity-nesting friends.
Birds like ash-throated flycatchers, western bluebirds, tree swallows and wood ducks all utilize pre-existing nest holes to raise their families. Fortunately, thanks to a generous donation from the City of Elk Grove, the Laguna Creek Watershed Council was able to purchase supplies to build artificial nest boxes to house some of these birds until the forest matures. This Sunday, we will be assembling and installing four bird boxes and two wood duck boxes along Laguna Creek between Jack Hill Park and Elk Grove-Florin Road. You might also be the lucky winner of a free bird box to put up in your own backyard habitat. Hope to see you there!
