Checking in with New Wildlife at Freshkills Park
Last Friday, a few members of the Freshkills Park team headed out to South Park to check on the bird nestboxes that were set up there last August by Dr. Mark Hauber, a Professor of Psychology at Hunter College. Dr. Hauber is gathering data on the bird populations and breeding success at Freshkills Park, a site which has acted as a stopover for bird species along the Atlantic Migratory Flyway since the closure of the landfill.
We took a peek into about 50 of the 80+ boxes that are set up around this area of the Park, and were delighted to find that many had become a home to nests of house wrens and tree swallows. Some of the boxes are providing shelter for up to seven infant birds, a breeding success indeed! Be sure to check more photos on our Facebook and Flickr pages to get a closer look at the baby birds we discovered and Dr. Hauber at work.
If you are interested in learning more about the birds and wildlife at Freshkills Park, stay tuned for our next bi-monthly birding tour, which will be co-led by naturalists from the Staten Island Museum.
