Wildlife Habitat Management

The job of today's golf course superintendent has many functions.  Obviously it is my primary responsibility to manage the daily functions of the golf course to meet the requirements of the game of golf, but a secondary responsibility is to manage the course so we are maximizing the environmental benefit of the property.  In today's world of shrinking natural areas within the urbanized lands of society, golf courses have become a welcoming refuge for animals like birds.  The golf course's diverse landscapes provide excellent habitat for numerous species of permanent and annual inhabitants. 

Many of you probably are aware that at one point CCN had a nesting box program.  However, the program was abandoned years ago for whatever reason.  I am very proud to say this past weekend the nesting box program has been resurrected.  Throughout the golf course a dozen new cedar nesting boxes and two Purple Martin condos have been installed in an effort to stimulate even more wildlife activity on the property.  I felt it was time to reconstitute the nest box program because one morning I was sitting at ten tee having one of those moments when you just really look at the golf course and see the real beauty of it all.  I was looking at the amber colors of the morning sunrise, the long shadows cast by the old cypress heads and then I noticed an Eastern Bluebird.  Then I saw a Purple Martin, a Loggerhead Shrike, an American Kestrel and a Bald Eagle.  It was a great morning ride and once I really started looking, I saw the golf course teaming with activity that I hadn't noticed before.

After making some calls to see what other golf courses were doing with their nesting box programs, I settled on using a small company here in town called Lane Edward Designs that makes great wooden next boxes.  All of the boxes are made of cedar and have an access panel on the side so the box can be easily checked for activity and maintained.  I concentrated the program on four primary species of birds: Bluebirds, Screech Owls, Woodpeckers and Wood Ducks.  Although we have so many more species, these five particular species should give us a good starting point to expand upon.

Here's our boxes all ready to be installed.

Getting the boxes ready to install.  Pictured is Brian Beckner, owner of Lane Edward Designs.  He manufactures all of the boxes himself.  Prior to installing the bird houses, Brian did a one hour bird count a few weeks ago and found 20 different species already on the property.  It is our goal to double that!  Brian will also be doing a maintenance program on the boxes that will include an activity report of any eggs or hatchlings so we can monitor our success with the nesting boxes.

Here is a picture of the different boxes for the Bluebirds, Woodpeckers and Owls (in the same order).  The Wood Duck box looks like the Owl box, its just positioned by water instead of in the woods.  As you can see, the type of bird dictates the type of box.  Each hole and box dimension is specifically tailored to what type of bird we are trying to attract.  Its not as simple as just putting up a bird box.

Here is a picture of what the inside of the box looks like and how the maintenance hatch opens up.  The black net like material is for the birds to be able to climb out of the box since they can't fly out.

Here's the first box to go up.  Its right behind #4 white tee. 

Each box gets a label for monitoring identification.  Also, the location of each box is GPS'd for our records.  We need to make sure that we do not over populate areas with the same type of boxes.  We can put multiple different species boxes in close proximity, but not multiple of the same species.  The GPS will help us make sure we do not lose any boxes.

Here is a picture of a Wood Duck box behind hole #4.  The lake should be perfect for Wood Ducks.

These are wood ducks. They are absolutely beautiful.

We also have 2 Purple Martin condo houses on the course.  There is one behind 8 green and one between 16 & 17.  Did you know it is estimated that Purple Martins can eat up to 2000 mosquitoes a day. 

This is a purple martin.  They are amazing to watch fly around and catch mosquitoes and other insects.  It's like watching an air show!  Besides their color, they can be identified by the very angular wing tip and very, very fast aerial maneuvers.

Here is a Wood Pecker box, notice the extra hole guard.  Wood Peckers like to drill out their own style hole so the nesting boxes are fitted with a little extra wood to accommodate the desire to "drill" without damaging the nest box.

Here are some of the common wood peckers found out on our course....

This is the Pileated Wood Pecker.  It is one of the largest wood peckers.

This is the Downy Wood Pecker.  This guy is one of the smaller ones

This is the Red-Bellied Wood Pecker.  It's one of the most common ones on the course.

Pictured here is one of our new Bluebird boxes.  This one is between 7 & 8 by 8 green.

This Bluebird box is in the cypress head between 10 and 13

Here's a picture of a Bluebird.  We have them on the course, we just need a few to call us home.

Here's what a Screech Owl looks like, there are two color variations

As you are playing golf, keep your eye out for our new habitat improvements.  Hopefully we will see some activity in the next few weeks.  My guess is the Purple Martin houses will be the first ones used.