From Concerts to Conservation: Enhancing Wildlife Habitat at Wolf Trap

Many readers may be familiar with Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts (that’s its official name!) in Vienna, Virginia.  Perhaps, you’ve attended concerts while picnicking on the grounds and enjoying the bucolic setting.  But, Wolf Trap is not only an entertainment venue but also a full-fledged Park in its own right, with several miles of hiking trails, pollinator gardens, a Woodland Garden and Wildlife sanctuary, and a robust monthly schedule of nature-oriented activities, facilitated by the Friends of Wolf Trap. The Friends also monitor the bluebird nestboxes and Purple Martin gourds following recommended practices, and report the data on Nestwatch.

Wolf Trap’s 16 bluebird boxes and 12 Purple Martin gourds are occupied most of the season.  “Real estate” is in short supply, like everywhere else, and these dwellings are in high demand!  Thirty-eight Bluebirds have fledged this season so far, and the gourds currently cradle 59 Purple Martin eggs.  The usual assortment of chickadees, tree swallows and house wrens vie for the nestboxes, also, with eggs and hatchlings in progress and fledglings already on the wing.  It’s a lively and diverse neighborhood!

But, like many neighborhoods, it’s nearing the end of its lifecycle and could use some “sprucing up.” Many of the nestboxes are severely weathered, in poor repair, and lack noel guards and snake baffles.  It’s been my dream for some time to improve the comfort, safety and security of the nestboxes, but where to acquire the funds and labor?

An opportunity presented itself recently to make this dream a reality.  A Virginia Bluebird Society member was offering free, Scout-constructed, bluebird nestboxes with noel guards and snake baffles for the asking!  As the leader of the Wolf Trap Bluebird Trail, this was too enticing to pass up.  Soon, I was transporting new boxes and snake baffles to my home.

The plan is to replace the weathered boxes in the Fall after the nesting season is over.  As it turned out, the new boxes arrived just in the nick of time when Box #16 disappeared from the meadow (affectionately called “The Dimple”) in front of the entrance to the Filene Center.  Grounds maintenance had been cleaning up the Dimple with heavy equipment, and it’s likely the box was knocked off the pole and swept up in the debris.  Replacing Box #16 was a great opportunity to learn what will be entailed when we replace the remaining boxes using a team of Fairfax Master Naturalists, Scouts and other interested persons later this year.

Wolf Trap in the last few years has really stepped up its game in terms of improving its buildings and adding facilities that serve all types of patrons.  It seems only fitting that the nestboxes show the same pride of place, and now they will!  Wolf Trap is truly a place where not only performers and patrons, but nature itself, comes out to play — and that includes, of course, the cavity-dwelling Bluebirds, Purple Martins, and others.

Kathy Stewart

Certified Fairfax Master Naturalist

Board Member, Friends of Wolf Trap