At our recent Global Big Day Bird Hike, 34 species of birds were identified either migrating through, nesting, flying over, feeding, soaring and singing! From the Wild Turkeys strutting, to the Great Blue Herons flying through the air above Spencer Creek, the Red Tailed Hawks soaring, the Eastern Meadowlarks and Killdeer guarding their ground nests, the Summer Tanagers and Indigo Buntings singing, the Chimney Swifts chattering during their aerial acrobatics, and our Eastern Bluebirds and Tree Swallows busy parenting in and around our 12 campus nest boxes, the breeding season is in full swing!
Our nest box monitoring team of 6 dedicated volunteers, are busy from April through July, to keep a watchful eye on the nest boxes and their broods, and enter observations into nestwatch.org. This provides important information to help keep track of world bird data. For more information on Tennessee birds visit here Tennessee Watchable Wildlife | Birds (tnwatchablewildlife.org)
Just as humans need plenty of food, water, shelter and space, to provide for our children and help them grow, so too do our feathered friends need suitable habitat in which to raise their young!
All the Earth is the Lord’s and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it. As our Creation Care team, with the hard work and support of our greater church membership, continues to restore the green and more wild spaces of our campus with native habitat, particularly along our creeks, the forest edge of the horse track and the native field restoration- we will continue to be a safe haven for many creatures! May we continue to be good stewards of our land and to God be the glory!
~ Kay Matthews, Creation Care Team Volunteer