We recently heard from Kate Slankard (formerly Kate Heyden -- Congratulations Kate and Scott!), Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Non-Game Avian Biologist, that many of the wooden nest boxes KDFWR put up years ago for Prothonotary Warblers (aka Golden Swamp Warblers) have deteriorated beyond repair. She wanted to know if CKAS could help build her some more -- but this time, making them from something other than wood: PVC pipe. Not fearing a challenge, CKAS promised at least fifty boxes, and maybe as many as one hundred.

Prothonotary warblers are the only Eastern warbler species which nests in cavities, more likely to use an old woodpecker hole than excavate their own. Competition for such cavities and loss of swampy wooded habitat has decreased their numbers in Kentucky. Though their populations are mostly stable in the United States and Prothonotary Warblers are not listed as "climate threatened" in the Audubon Birds and Climate Report, they are on the 2014 State of the Birds Watch List and the Kentucky Species of Conservation Need list. They're a bird that it's easy to help: they will accept almost any nesting cavity -- birdhouses, empty jars, even old boots.

KDFWR sent us plans for a PVC tube box birdhouse design they would like to try that looks easy to construct, easy to mount, and easy to maintain. It was pioneered by a group in Wisconsin that put up 65 boxes along the lower Sugar River and had roughly 40% box use by Prothonotary Warblers in the first year. The second year, Prothontary box use increased to 75%. Surprisingly, their data indicated no competition from chickadees, titmice, or cowbirds, though it does show some box use by house wrens and cliff swallows. Each box's brood produced an average of five chicks and the study record the first documented case of Wisconsin Prothonotaries raising two broods in a season. CKAS will be building our boxes for KDFWR over the next few months so they can be placed by the warbler's return in late March. We will need your help with assembly; watch for dates!
        

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has already contributed to Central Kentucky Audubon via the 2016 GoodGiving Guide Challenge. Your support helps us help the birds living in or migrating through central Kentucky. We are pleased to have been one of only one hundred local charities chosen by the Bluegrass Community Foundation to participate in this year's challenge.

You can make a tax-deductible donations until midnight, New Year's Eve. This year-end campaign is CKAS's biggest annual fundraiser; if you have not given yet, please do -- minimum is $10 and any little bit will help. Also, watch for other e-mails about special dates for Matching Grant Challenges which give you the chance to have your donation matched dollar-for-dollar!

For this year's Challenge, everyone who wants to get more involved can sign up as a CKAS social media ambassador. If you believe in what we do and would like to help raise money for our cause, you can help out by adding us to your social media pages. It's easy to set up: just click here to start a personal fundraiser for CKAS.