Written by Susan DeFord of Friends of Sligo Creek (FOSC) and edited by Montgomery County DEP.
A brightly colored male bluebird perches atop a nest box. Photo by Ken Klein.
Nestled between Georgia Avenue and Sligo Creek Parkway in Wheaton, several stormwater ponds sit in a neighborhood behind a copse of trees. Built in 1979, the Wheaton Branch stormwater ponds do more than just capture and filter stormwater runoff. They also act as a comfortable home for secondary cavity nesters like bluebirds.
In early 2023, Friends of Sligo Creek (FOSC) came to the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection with a proposal to start a nest box project at the ponds.
The combination of an open, sunny area, grassy pond berms buzzing with insects, trees, and water, make the ponds the ideal location for a variety of birds to nest. These conditions work particularly well for secondary cavity-nesting birds, like bluebirds, chickadees, and tree swallows, who nest in enclosed spaces such as holes in trees or human-made nest boxes.
In spring of 2023, FOSC worked with local birding expert Emily Huang of the Montgomery Bird Club to select locations for new nest boxes. DEP reviewed and approved the proposed locations.
Longtime FOSC member Walter Mulbry constructed three of the four nest boxes installed at the ponds in the fall of 2023. He used online plans from birding groups to build nest boxes with features such as small openings, ventilation holes, and baffles to thwart predators and attract native birds.
Later in November, neighborhood volunteers received training from Montgomery Bird Club’s Huang on how to carefully check nest boxes and keep records on nesting activity.
The new nest boxes, each with its own nickname and pair of volunteer monitors, quickly drew interest from native birds in the early spring months.
As summer heat swelled, house wrens at the Wheaton Branch pond accelerated nest-building. Twiggy creations filled three of the four FOSC nest boxes that earlier drew nesting bluebirds, tree swallows, and chickadees. House wrens choose twigs with cottony spider egg sacs because newly hatched spiders devour mites that can endanger nestlings. Smart little birds!
By late August, it became clear that nesting season had finished, and it was time to scrape and clean boxes. In 2024, the ponds had a promising start to native birds’ use of the new nestbox trail. Feathered residents at the Wheaton Branch ponds clearly consider it a good place to raise a family.
