The Jersey Journal
Friday, March 24, 2014
BY JENNIFER MOSSCROP
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Spring is in the air – well, almost – and for its 10th year, the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission will install 500 tree swallow nest boxes in the Meadowlands in an attempt to keep the little metallic blue and white birds in the area.
Last week, Gabrielle Bennett-Meany, outreach naturalist, and Larry Marciano, of the NJMC, installed about 20 nest boxes along the shoreline at the Mill Creek Marsh in Secaucus.
They plan on installing them in the Kearny Marsh when the weather gets warmer.
Every year more boxes are added and, according to Bennett-Meany, each hosts a pair of tree swallows.
“I’ve never seen a box that was unoccupied,” Bennett-Meany said.
The nest boxes are designed with a hinged roof that allows curious bird-watchers to get a peek at the birds and a small hole for the birds to get in and out.
Nancy Benecki, spokeswoman for the NJMC, said tree swallows thrive in wetlands so the boxes are stuck into the mud flats that hug the shoreline.
When the weather gets warmer and the ground is softer, Bennett-Meany and Marciano will take a boat out along the Mill Creek Marsh shoreline and install 60 more boxes.
The boxes were built throughout the winter by local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops and members of Pathways to Independence, a nonprofit organization in Kearny that provides vocational training to adults with developmental disabilities.
As for why the NJMC and local volunteers are dedicating so much time to these birds, Benecki said there are two reasons: The tree swallow, which naturally lives in holes of dead trees hollowed out by other birds and animals, is experiencing a decline in its natural habitat due to development in the Meadowlands area. There are not enough dead trees for them to make their homes in.
Also, tree swallows help balance out the ecosystem by eating swarms of mosquitoes and midges, which are gnat-like bugs, that come to the wetlands when the weather gets warm.
“The tree swallows have taken well to the nest boxes,” Benecki said. “And it is easy for volunteers to build them and help provide shelter for the birds.”
