When Tennessee Bluebird Society members Chuck James and Stan Colburn learned that Seven Islands State Birding Park in Kodak needed help with its bluebird population, they knew the group would spring into action.
The pair, along with John Johnson and Richard Bingham of the Tellico Village Woodworkers Club, presented nest boxes last week to Park Ranger Justine Cucchiara and Morton Massey, president of Friends of Seven Islands.
“We put together and trained a team of volunteers to monitor and record the nest box visits and realized that all 50 nest boxes needed to be replaced,” James said.
The Tellico Village Woodworkers Club agreed to build more than 25 nest boxes for the project.
“Stan and I met with Justine and we realized that we needed help since all 50 nest boxes were in terrible shape,” James said. “Stan met with the Woodworkers Club of Tellico Village.”
Club members built 22 nest boxes, with Colburn and Massey helping with additional boxes.
“It was a great collaboration between people here and Tellico Village helping other conservation efforts in East Tennessee,” James said.
Johnson and Bingham took a week to complete 22 nest boxes, with Johnson pointing out that they stopped once they ran out of wood.
“We get service requests and, in this case, they furnished all of the materials,” Johnson said. “This one had been around for a bit of time and I figured I better get a hold on this.”
Cucchiara said nest boxes at the Kodak park were in disrepair and falling apart.
“The project needed to be revitalized,” Cucchiara said. “We’ve needed to organize, streamline and upgrade the effort all around.”
Such efforts help promote research at the park with the information going into a database at nestwatch.org, a nationwide database used to research bird populations, Cucchiara said.
Seven Islands became Tennessee’s 56th state park in September 2013. The park sits on 416 acres of grassland habitat for primarily ground-nesting birds.
“We’re the first bird-focused state park, although I’m sure that we won’t be the last,” Cucchiara said.
A state birding trail is being developed at Seven Islands and as soon as the non-profit paperwork is received the park will be taking membership, she said.
The Tennessee Bluebird Society was started in October 2014 and already includes 95 members, James said.
“We wanted to replace the bird boxes out at the park and to be in a position to monitor those bird houses throughout the summer,” Massey said. “It’s just really, really great that we can find clubs like the woodworker folks to volunteer their time to a worthy cause.”
