Dennis Fairall

Biologists hope nesting boxes attract swallows to research centre

If you build it, they will come.

That’s the hope of a team from the Department of Biological Sciences who installed 51 nest boxes at the University’s Pelee Environmental Research Centre on Saturday, August 27, to attract tree swallows, a blue-and-white species of songbird that breeds in the area.

“Tree swallows are an important part of our local bird community and they are excellent study animals,” said biology professor Dan Mennill, an ornithologist who helped to organize the project.