Bluebirds have long been a symbol of happiness, good health and hope. For hundreds of years, humans have used nest boxes to facilitate cavity-nesting bird populations such as bluebirds and martins. The National Park Service at Wolf Trap National Park and Friends of Wolf Trap would like to form a Bird House Monitoring Team to monitor and maintain the Bluebird and the brand new Purple Martin housing at the Park No experience necessary. The boxes can be divided up into as many sections as we have volunteers. With multiple volunteers, its easy to collect data from the housing. Enjoy this beautiful location for this Citizen Scientist project. Training provided by Dale Thornton/Bluebirds and Mike Bishop, Northern Virginia Purple Martin Initiative. A few hours once a month commitment – schedule your own time. Great family or individual conservation project!

To learn more and to join this team PLEASE REGISTER FOR A FREE TICKET so we can have the right amount of materials available and can communicate with you as needed.

Fairfax Master Naturalists the FMN Service Project number is S263 Wolf Trap Stewardship Projects.

The bluebird and purple martin monitoring season typically starts in late March and continues through August. Nests are monitored on a weekly basis during the spring/summer nesting season and volunteers will help with box repair and maintenance during the off season, on an as-needed basis. The hope is to assemble a team of trained monitors who will work on a rotating basis throughout the season and continue next year and into for future seasons. Ideally, we will be able to assemble a team size such that each trained volunteer would be on a three or four week rotation; however, the monitoring schedule and associated details will partly depend upon how many people choose to volunteer.

The interested volunteers should be adults who have received the appropriate training and hands-on experience monitoring bluebirds and, specifically, the Wolf Trap bluebird trail. Children under the supervision of the trained volunteer monitor are welcome to assist the volunteer while they are conducting their monitoring duties.