May 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 42

CONSERVATION

An Eastern bluebird.

Citizen Science Volunteers Vital to Parks
By Richard J. Dolesh

I

f you ever visit the NRPA headquarters in Ashburn, Virginia, located within West Brambleton Park, a 600-acre Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority park, you will be delighted by the number of
bluebirds, tree swallows, chickadees, house wrens and other songbirds
that take up residence in a series of nest boxes strategically placed around
the headquarters building, parking lot and pond. These valuable songbirds
can be seen almost any time of the day during the nesting season.

He faithfully monitors the 12 nest
boxes every week throughout
the nesting season, repairing or
replacing any boxes that need it.
This fulsome number of cavity-nesting songbirds is due in large
part to the efforts of John Whisler,
a volunteer from the local community, who has taken over monitoring of a bluebird nest box " trail " at
NRPA. He faithfully monitors the
12 nest boxes every week through40

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out the nesting season, repairing
or replacing any boxes that need it.
Whisler checks on the number of
the eggs and health of the fledglings
in each nest, records the data and
evicts invasive non-native species,
such as house sparrows, that will
aggressively drive bluebirds and tree
swallows away from the nests and
even kill their hatchlings in order to
build their own nests.

A Dedication to Bluebirds
Before moving to Ashburn, Virginia, several years ago, Whis-

ler lived in Nebraska for 28 years
and worked all over the world as
a professional engineer. " I became
interested in wildlife when I lived
in Nebraska, " he says. " I enjoyed
watching deer, coyotes and birds. I
noticed bluebird boxes near where
I lived, and eventually got to know
the bluebird coordinator of the
local chapter of the North American Bluebird Society. I put up four
boxes on my 3-acre property and
had great success. I monitored my
boxes for 10 years. When I moved
to Ashburn, I put up a box in my
backyard three years ago and have
had two sets of bluebirds hatch every year since. " Whisler sent a picture of his box at home, which he
proudly notes had six bluebird eggs
in it at the end of April.
Karla Etten, a member of the nonprofit conservation group Loudoun



May 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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