Archive: Around Town

Photo by Suan YongWith all the talk in Lansing about sewer and development, one housing development quietly went up in two of Lansing's natural areas last weekend. The Lansing Pathways Committee has partnered with the Cayuga Bird Club to provide homes for a variety of birds on Salt Point and along town trails.  A large number of nesting boxes were installed that will attract Eastern Screech Owls, merganzers, chichkadees, wren, swallows, Kestrels, and blue birds on Salt Point, and a blue birds at the Lansing Center Trail with an Eastern Screech Owl box in the adjacent woodlands.

"We were able to install all of the bird nesting boxes at Salt Point and the Lansing Center Trail this weekend," says biologist Candace Cornell.  "At Salt Point on Saturday a group of 14 volunteers from the Cayuga Bird Club and Pathways put up:  7 bluebird, 2 screech owl, 1 chickadee, 2 kestrel, and 2 wren nesting boxes.  Then the group headed up to the Lansing Center Trail and installed 10 bluebird boxes along the trail.  On Sunday, five of us went back to the Lansing Center Trail and finished putting up the last 5 bluebird boxes and 1 screech owl box.  Therefore, the LCT now has 15 bluebird boxes along the trail!  The screech owl box is high up on a tree along the Short Line Spur in the wooded area at the north end."

Cornell has spent the summer observing the osprey family on Salt Point in preparation for a book about the birds.  She has decided to move to Lansing in part because of the beauty and natural resources in the lakeside township.  She and her husband are currently closing on a home here, and she is diving in to become active in local initiatives, including the Lansing Trails Committee.  To start she is donating 20 to 35 trees to be planted at Salt Point


The bird box paths will also feature benches paid for by donations.  Leading the bird box trail project are Cornell, Councilwoman Katrina Binkewicz, Sue Ruoff, Deb Trumbell, and Cayuga Lab of Ornithology scientist Robyn Bailey.

Cornell says the nest boxes will provide homes in areas that are devoid of mature trees for natural holes such as as Salt Point.  Salt Point was the home of International Salt Company until the facility burned down.  Today there is still building debris hidden among what appears to be lush foliage, but the old growth ideal for birds is still in its future.

"Salt Point is still in it's early ecological secession, since it's only been a natural site for 52 years and the vegetation and trees are still young and the vegetation community is not yet complex," Cornell explains.  "The nest boxes will take place of mature trees until they grow. The CBC hopes to continue to work with the town and the LPC to improve the beach and shoreline areas for waterfowl and shorebirds."

v9i40