Making a Home for Breeding Birds

 "Nature is not a place to visit. It is home." 

– Gary Snyder

ASCM lives it mission to protect and restore birds, other wildlife, and their habitats through our long-term management and investments in our Audrey Carroll and Fred Archibald sanctuaries.

Land Stewardship

Over the years, we have taken specific actions to:

• Convert some of the former farm fields to warm season grassland meadows for nesting field sparrows, common yellowthroats, and wild turkeys.

• Reforest other fields to enhance forest cover for species like wood thrush, scarlet tanager, and yellow-throated vireo that require larger intact forest to successfully breed.

• Optimize a slope at the Audrey Carroll Sanctuary to create the shrub and small tree habit vital for yellow-breasted chat, prairie warbler, white-eyed vireo, and blue-winged warbler breeding.  With support from a Maryland DNR grant, invasive trees and shrubs were removed, larger native trees were thinned to set back succession, and native shrubs and small trees were planted to replace the non-native species.

Nest Box Program

Our 20+ year nest box program continues at both sanctuaries. And what a success it’s been with more than 250-300 fledged young annually in recent years! This important program is supported by a dedicated group of volunteers who monitor the boxes weekly during the breeding season and report findings to Cornell Labs’ NestWatch program.

Your Ongoing Support is Needed!

Thanks to generous donations and committed volunteers, we can continue this crucial work to help ensure central Maryland’s bird populations continue to thrive.