by Janet Gremli

On Sunday, May 3, 2015, the Young Naturalist Club met at Brookside County Park. A special contribution was made by eight year old Vanessa Roe. Vanessa brought along a very compact, delicate bird nest that she had found at the Suffolk County Farm in Yaphank. A unique feature of the nest was the horse hair wound gently round the interior to provide protection and warmth for the baby birds. The task at hand was to decipher what bird could have made such a perfect little nest?

Multiple reference guides were retrieved from the Brookside library and everyone began deducing the identity of the avian designer. “It must be a small bird”, “Were there horses or a farm nearby”, “Is it pocket-like and circular”, “Are there grasses or twigs in the nest”, “Was it on the ground or in a tree”? These were some of the questions asked during our nest investigation.

Using all the clues provided and location details from Vanessa, it was determined that the nest belonged to a Chipping Sparrow, Spizella Passerina.

Our day ended with a walk through the park with sightings of fiddle-head ferns, skunk cabbage, Canada mayflower, marsh marigold, jonquils and newly emerging poison ivy. Best of all, was a glimpse of a giant snapping turtle soaking up the sunshine on a fallen log in the west pond.

Click to enlarge photos – Photos Courtesy of Janet Gremli