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FAQs

In this section, you’ll find answers to many frequently asked questions regarding wildlife and habitat.

Wildlife

We care for wildlife by providing them with critical habitat. However, we don’t have the staff or expertise to care for injured wildlife. If you have an injured wild animal, keep it in a warm, dark place (like a box with air holes), and contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources or contact Animal Help Now.

 

Bluebirds incubate their eggs for about two weeks. The young take their first flight two weeks after they hatch. Bluebirds often produce more than one brood in a nesting season.

Eastern bluebirds are primarily insect eaters who shift toward berries in colder months when insects are not available. They often migrate short distances to warmer areas to ensure enough food for the winter season. Their diet includes caterpillars, other invertebrates, fruit, and nuts. It takes about a thousand caterpillars to raise a brood of bluebirds, so please don’t use insecticides! Bluebirds hunt from a perch rather than on the wing and find most of their food on or close to the ground.

The bluebird’s nest is constructed of fine, dried grasses or pine needles and takes up only about a third of the box. The sparrow nest is messy, including feathers and other debris, and can fill the box. Bluebird eggs are usually pale blue (although some can be almost white), while sparrow eggs are white to grey with brown speckles.

Ospreys incubate their eggs for 38 – 42 days. Females do the majority of the incubating, although males can incubate up to 30% of the time. The young osprey takes flight 50 – 60 days after hatching. Young ospreys require about 2 pounds of fish per day to survive.

You can almost set your clock by their arrival—March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day)—although we’ve had sightings a few days and even a week earlier because of our recent mild winters. Adults begin their fall migration as soon as fledglings become independent. Juveniles normally migrate in late August-September.

The average clutch is 12; about 4 – 6 of these will survive until adulthood. The young females often return to the areas where they fledged to raise their own families. See the Wood Duck Jump Day video. 

Bats are beneficial insectivores, a natural predator of many of our pesky night-flying insects. The most common bat found in Maryland, the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), can consume up to 600 mosquitoes in just one hour. Bats are feared only to the extent that they are misunderstood. The concern about acquiring rabies from bats is grossly exaggerated. Less than .05% of bats ever contract rabies, a frequency much lower than that of most mammals. 

The American Kestrel is a predator that feeds on large insects such as grasshoppers, small mammals, such as mice and moles, birds of sparrow size, and, in some cases, reptiles and amphibians. 

The Delmarva fox squirrel (Sciurus niger cinereus) is distinguished from the common gray squirrel by its larger size, bushier tail, and steel-gray coloring with a white belly. They were historically found throughout the entire Delmarva peninsula, southeastern Pennsylvania, and west-central New Jersey. They now occupy less than 10% of their original range. The Delmarva fox squirrel, which was listed as an endangered species in 1967, is largely a result of the destruction of mature mixed hardwood forests, their preferred habitat, and human encroachment. They suffer significant mortality from being run over by automobiles. Fox squirrels are slow-moving, which also makes them an easy target for pet dogs and cats. They were delisted from the U.S. Endangered Species List in December 2015 after nearly 50 years of protection. 

Delmarva Fox Squirrel, photo courtesy of John White

Backyard Habitat

Black oil sunflower seed is the staple of most birds in this area. You can also provide thistle, safflower, corn, and peanuts for added variety. Feeders should be cleaned once a week to prevent the spread of disease. Offer your backyard birds fresh water for drinking and bathing. 

The first step is to choose a sunny spot in your backyard. Most garden butterflies prefer sunny locations. Avoid wide-open areas where birds can easily spot their prey. Walls or borders of shrubs and trees provide adequate shelter from the wind. Choose native plants to provide a more natural setting for visitors to your garden. Do not place a pollinator garden in an area where pesticides are used. Inviting pollinators in just to be killed by insecticides is a trap. 

The host plant for the Monarch is milkweed, Asclepias sp. Always use native milkweed in your area. Also, provide a variety of nectar-producing flowers from early spring until the end of the migration season. Again, do not use insecticides in your Monarch habitat.

Backyard wildlife habitats can be as simple or as complex as you wish, as long as the major habitat requirements of food, water, nesting, and resting areas are provided in the correct spatial arrangement. Some projects that can be incorporated into a backyard landscape are wildflower meadows, butterfly/hummingbird gardens, privacy screens, driveway hedgerows, small food plots, garden ponds, feeders, brush piles, and nesting and roosting boxes for birds and small mammals. One brush pile = 1000+ organisms and 100+ species.

Nesting Structures

Boxes should be placed in open areas with several trees and shrubs nearby, so the Bluebirds can hunt insects but still have a perch. Fledgling Bluebirds need a tree or shrub within 50 feet of the nesting box for a safe landing site off the ground as they recover from their first flight. Bluebird boxes should be placed at least 100 yards (about the length of a football field) apart. 

Wrens, Chickadees, Tree Swallows, and House Sparrows will also use a Bluebird nesting box (click here for help with identifying these nests). Bluebird boxes should be checked regularly, and any House Sparrow nests removed. These non-native birds will attack and kill adult and baby Bluebirds, Chickadees, and Tree Swallows. 

Before the spring nesting season begins, remove any winter debris from your Bluebird boxes. Unkempt boxes promote disease and parasites that are harmful to both the young and the brooding female. During nesting season, check the boxes regularly (once a week) to clear out unwanted House Sparrow nests. Most importantly, be sure your Bluebird boxes are protected with a cone predator guard. The predator guard will prevent snakes, raccoons, and housecats from eating the Bluebird eggs and young. 

1)  Choosing a poor location. Houses should be at least 40 feet away from trees but within 100 feet of human buildings.
2)  Opening the house too early. Martin houses should be reopened approximately 4 weeks after the first scouts are observed. In our area, this is usually late April – early May.
3)  Closing the house too early. Leave your house up until late September. This year’s fledglings may search for next year’s site before they migrate.
4)  Allowing other bird species, like non-native English House Sparrows, to occupy the house. If any other species settles into an unestablished Martin house before the Martins arrive, those houses will rarely attract nesting Martins. Houses should be lowered and checked periodically to remove any unwanted nests. 

1)  Choosing a poor location. Houses should be at least 40 feet away from trees but within 100 feet of human buildings.
2)  Opening the house too early. Martin houses should be reopened approximately 4 weeks after the first scouts are observed. In our area, this is usually late April – early May.
3)  Closing the house too early. Leave your house up until late September. This year’s fledglings may search for next year’s site before they migrate.
4)  Allowing other bird species to occupy the house. If any other species settles into an unestablished Martin house before the Martins arrive, those houses will rarely attract nesting Martins. Houses should be lowered and checked periodically to remove any unwanted nests. 

To reflect the sun’s heat—otherwise, nestlings may die from heat stress.

New platforms are often occupied by juvenile pairs as they return from their 3 – 4-year stay in South America. Juveniles will likely return to the area where they were raised. Be patient. It may take a few years for a young pair to return and claim their nesting site. 

Open fields and meadows or along fence rows. Boxes can be mounted on utility poles, buildings, lone trees, or custom poles. The house should face a south or easterly direction. Pick a site within 100 – 200 yards of a tall tree or pole/wires, so the Kestrels can perch near the box. Box height should be 10 – 30 feet from the ground, and the entrance should be unobstructed by twigs or branches. Starlings or House Sparrows that take over a Kestrel box should be removed. 

Wood Ducks prefer quiet inland freshwater marshes (not open water ponds, like fishponds or golf course ponds) with stable levels throughout the summer. Water should be in or near deciduous or mixed hardwood. Brood cover, in the form of overhanging woody vegetation along the water edge and emergent vegetation like sweet flag and cattails, provides an area for hiding and foraging. 

Trees & Shrubs

Native plants are best adapted to the growing conditions in our area. Native plants meet the nutritional needs of native wildlife, as native insects are not usually able to feed on non-native plants. As a result, yards and other areas with a majority of non-native plants are not able to provide the insect resources that young birds need to survive. Please read Doug Tallamy’s book Nature’s Best Hope for further explanation of the ecological benefits of native plants. 

Hedgerows, traditionally used as property boundaries and for livestock containment, have been rapidly disappearing from the Eastern Shore landscape. Hedgerows provide travel corridors, escape cover, nesting, and brood-rearing areas for wildlife and help to reduce the harmful effects of farm runoff. They can provide emergency cover in snow as linear thickets. By blocking the wind, they also help reduce thermal stress for both wildlife and humans. Backyard hedges make great living privacy screens. 

Plant hedgerows with fruit-producing shrubs and evergreen shrubs. Smaller evergreen trees create a windbreak that provides cover, nesting, and food supply for many of our songbirds. Eastern red cedar, southern wax myrtle, and American holly hold their leaves and needles throughout winter and are excellent trees for a hedgerow. We also recommend elderberry, persimmon, viburnums, and many other species. Email us for a more complete listing of plants that may work in your area. 

Sustainable Agriculture

No-till conservation tillage involves leaving a surface residue on the field with no disturbance to the plow layer. This helps reduce soil erosion. Combined with band-spraying of herbicides in just the planted row itself, the weeds between the rows can be cultivated with a no-till cultivator.

Banding is the spraying of pre- and post-emergence herbicides over just the crop row. Banding allows for the reduction of up to 2/3 of applied chemical herbicides, providing economic savings to the farmer.

Winter cover crops hold and protect topsoil, increase organic matter, take up excess nitrogen, and provide wintering food for migratory geese. In the Delmarva area, there are two types of cover crops: small grains such as rye, barley, and wheat, and legumes such as crimson clover.

Wetlands & Habitat Restoration

No. Shallow emergent wetlands are only 6 – 18 inches at full pool. They provide habitat for a variety of wetland-dependent wildlife, such as dabbling ducks, insects, dragonflies, amphibians, turtles, and reptiles, but not fish. Restored wetlands also help filter nutrients and sediments from farm runoff before it reaches the Chesapeake Bay.

This depends on the hydrology, soil composition, shade, and surrounding plant community in a wetland or marsh area. We will evaluate on a site-by-site basis the plants most likely to survive at your site.

The USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) are the federal government’s largest and best environmental improvement programs. This voluntary program pays landowners to restore wetlands, grasslands, and forests on their properties. These restoration sites provide valuable habitat for wildlife and help filter surface and groundwater pollution before it reaches the Chesapeake Bay (or other watersheds). Your land must have been in agriculture for four of the last five years to be eligible for the program during the time periods when the program is open for enrollment.

Meadows

Warm-season grasses (WSG) provide essential food and cover for countless birds and small mammals. WSG are clumpy (not solid mats like fescue fields), which allows plenty of room on the ground for wildlife to move freely between the clumps. Native WSG provides excellent cover during all months of the year and grows well during our hot, dry mid-shore summers. They are lovely to look at and provide a nice visual screen for sensitive habitats like wetlands. Easy to maintain, WSG require little fertility and need only some managed mowing, spot spraying, or burning every 3-5 years.  

Areas should be mowed outside of nesting season, usually in March. We recommend mowing only 1/3 of a meadow every year. This creates a patchwork of habitats offering the right temporal and spatial distribution of food, breeding, and escape cover. 

Drone Spraying

Yes, agricultural drone technology boosts our productivity. We’ve been using them for several seasons to control invasive plants and for seeding. We have found them to be efficient, precise, and cost-effective tools that have earned a permanent spot in our diverse menu of options for wildland manipulation. 

 

Phragmites control on a large salt marsh is a challenging and expensive undertaking even under favorable conditions. Using the ag drone, we can cover about 1 acre of phragmites with glyphosate per trip. The landing zone is minuscule. The noise is negligible. The phrag spray season can be brutally hot and humid for our team. The drone operator minimizes exposure to the elements, insects, and herbicides. The drones have also been very effective at controlling sweetgums and other invasives in large wetlands and meadows in August and September. 

Yes, overseeding is another task where the ag drones are very useful. We often broadcast clover into a standing crop in August/September to establish a cover crop or clover meadow for the following growing season. Seeding rates vary, but in one trip, the drone can cover 4 to 15 acres. Similarly, when we frost seed clover in the spring (February/March), the drone proves extremely beneficial as there is no need to worry about traveling across wet, muddy ground and causing ruts in the land with ground equipment. 

 

Phragmites

Also known as “common reed,” phragmites is an invasive plant that thrives in either fresh or brackish wetland areas.  Phragmites spreads rapidly through its rhizome system and can dominate an entire wetland area. Because it grows so densely, it may choke out the more beneficial wetland plants and therefore provide little value for wildlife.

Our technicians use a glyphosate herbicide (Rodeo or Aqua Neat) solution that, when sprayed in the fall (when many other wetland plants have gone dormant), kills the phragmites but not the other beneficial native wetland plants.    

Yes, you can cut down your phragmites, but only after it has been sprayed with Rodeo/Aqua Neat in the fall and has turned brown (usually 3-4 weeks after spraying). If you intend to have your phragmites sprayed, do not cut them during the summer. The canes need to have sufficient green leaf surface when treated for the spraying to be effective.