The Friends of Greenwich Point Conservation Committee met on Saturday morning, March 19, to place two new wooden nest boxes on posts in the two marshes along the dirt road from the beach to Eagle Pond. They can also be seen from the four-bridges path from the bridges numbered 25 and 28. (Thirty-one sites at the Point were recently numbered for the purpose of location in the event of a 911 emergency call).  

 

The nest boxes were built for the Point by Greenwich Country Day School students. The nests inside boxes are protected from animals such as raccoons by round aluminum collars called baffles. Baffles were also affixed to two other existing nest boxes near the entrance to the Point on Saturday.

 

Tree Swallows are small migratory songbirds that spend the winter in Florida and Central America and return to northern North America to breed. Sporting iridescent blue-green plumage above with white underneath, they primarily eat insects in flight but will also feed on seeds and berries.  As cavity nesters, Tree Swallows will readily move into nest boxes, where they lay four to six white eggs and raise their family.  Another welcome inhabitant of the nest box would be a House Wren, who also eats insects and has a loud, clear, effervescent song.  Friends of Greenwich Point hopes you will notice, appreciate, respect and enjoy the birds that choose the Point for a place to raise their young.