On a chilly Saturday afternoon in early 2006, nearly forty bluebird nestboxes were placed around the Bank Street Bogs by volunteers with the Cape Cod Bird Club coordinated by HCT's Outreach & Stewardship Coordinator Ben Wright and James Adkinson from AmeriCorps. The project was funded by a $1,200 grant from the county-sponsored Green Grant Youth Council, a group of teen students who review and select environmental grant proposals.

Members of the Cape Cod Bird Club will monitor the boxes weekly for activity throughout the nesting season. Other species will also be recorded. For example, on that same Saturday two Wilson's Snipe, Red-tailed Hawk, Great Blue Heron, and several songbird species were observed. By early afternoon, three bluebirds were seen perched not far from a newly installed nestbox. Two is company, but three is a crowd!

Walking access to HCT's Bank Street Bogs can be easily found from the Harbormaster Workshop parking lot on the east side of Bank Street (Bank St. connects Route 28 to Route 39).

(Bluebird and sunrise photos: Stephanie Foster of the Harwich Oracle).