Marsh Haven a bird haven

commercialappeal.com (subscription), TN – Jun 28, 2014
Talented volunteers have created many houses for a variety of birds at Marsh Haven Nature center.
The largest is a picnic shelter which is no longer used as such because it now provides shelter for 20 mud nests built by barn swallows and cliff swallows. At least 82 young barn swallows are on their way to fledging and many young cliff swallow are developing in their mud gourds.

A nest box trail has been set up on the center’s grounds by Jack Bartholmai of Beaver Dam. These have been monitored this year by Larry Vine, director of Marsh Haven Nature Center. The 16 boxes have been used by four pairs of eastern bluebirds, eight pairs of tree swallows and one pair of house wrens. A total of 20 young bluebirds have fledged and as many as 40 tree swallows have or are expected to fledge. The house wrens are raising seven young.
Eight wood duck boxes have also been placed on the center’s pond and in the woods. This year five of the boxes produced a total of 55 wood ducks, two of the boxes were abandoned after 30 eggs were laid and one box was occupied by European starlings which was predated by a raccoon.
Two new purple martin souses were built and donated by Tony Oechsner of LeRoy. These large houses are called T-14 houses and have 14 separate nest sites in each. Oechsner found the plans at a special web site listed as www.purplemartin.org. This affords adequate space for rearing the young martins, and allows the nest to be far enough back from the entrance to prevent predation by hawks or owls which may reach into the nest box for its prey. The entrance is also unique in that it has a scalloped bottom which excludes the European Starling, one of the major competitors for nesting cavities. The entire housing unit can be raised and lowered with a cable and pulley system which allows easy monitoring of the progress of the nesting activity or problems which might arise within the cavities. Tony counted 112 rapidly growing Martin nestlings in his houses this year.
So far this year, an impressive 320 native birds of various species have been raised and added to the state’s bird population with the help of dedicated volunteers and many busy bird parents.
Marsh haven Nature Center is located 3.5 miles east of Waupun on Highway 49. It is open from noon to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.
Live TV monitoring of the in box nesting activity can be seen in the center’s gift shop. Many members of the swallow fa