Conservation Project
Adopt-A-Park Country Park

On Saturdays the park is closed to vehicle traffic, so we meet at the parking lot near the north end of the park.  Turn off Lawndale Drive onto Orman Road.  Drive to the end of Orman and turn left, go to the open parking lot, and you will see us there. 
 Check our Calendar for dates of upcoming park activities.

Conservation Committee Report Summer, 2010: Forty-eight Bluebird Fledglings!

We had another successful season of Eastern Bluebird breeding in Country Park. There was a little drama and intrigue as well, as nature always provides. Bluebirds used 8 of our boxes this year, producing 48 successful fledglings. We had a very unusual incident where a mother was found dead on top of her just-hatched chicks. We surmised that she was incubating them when she died. The chicks were brought
to Melissa Coe at Piedmont Wildlife Rehab, who took great care of them amongst many other helpless birds. They got mixed in with others, so we don’t know exactly how many survived, but she thinks at least 2 or 3 of the five did.
Another fascinating event was the presence of five beautiful WHITE eggs in a bluebird nest. They were the same shape and size as bluebird eggs. I wondered if they might be albino or perhaps even cowbird eggs. After a short search on the internet I learned that 5% of all Eastern Bluebirds lay white eggs, and they are completely normal. Sure enough, that nest produced 8 white eggs in two clutches, and all of the babies were blue and fledged successfully.
The boxes were not used as much by other species as has happened in the past. House Wrens tried to nest in one box, but the six eggs disappeared. Chickadees nested in 3 boxes with only mild success: 3 chicks fledged.
That wraps up another fun season of watching nature happen in the life of birds at Country Park.

               --Amy Hanson

Here is a map of Country Park in Greensboro, NC. . For a larger version, click on it. Map drawn by Cal  Weimer