Discover the Ranson Gardens
Nesting Trail!
Ranson Gardens is home to a diverse wildlife nesting trail featuring eleven houses and shelters designed to attract and support a variety of native species. Visitors can explore installations for Purple Martins, Eastern Bluebirds, Eastern Screech-Owls, House Wrens, American Robins, Mason Bees, and Gray Tree Frogs — The trail shows how a small park can provide safe harbor for wildlife by offering the right shelter in the right place, from open meadows to woodland edges to sheltered eaves. Below is information about the trail and the residents that we hope to make our neighbors.
Day Shift vs. Night Shift
During the day Purple Martins are on the job — swooping, diving, and showing off their aerial acrobatics while grabbing bugs midair. Then, at dusk, the night shift takes over. The bats trade sunshine for dark and use echolocation to find their dinner. This is nature's perfectly coordinated pest control operation.
Here's a list of the stops on the trail
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American Robin — Robins are one of the most familiar birds in North America, famous for their cheerful song and bright orange belly. Instead of using an enclosed birdhouse, robins build open cup-shaped nests out of mud and grass on a cozy sheltered platform. Keep your eyes open in spring and you might spot a mother robin tending her beautiful blue eggs!
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Tree Frog Tube — Gray Tree Frogs are tiny, secretive creatures that love to hide in dark, damp spots during the day and come out at night to hunt insects. This PVC tube hotel gives them a safe, shady place to rest that feels just like a hollow branch in the wild. Listen for their loud trilling call on warm summer evenings — it's surprisingly big for such a small frog!
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Mason Bee House — Mason Bees are gentle, hardworking bees that don't live in hives like honeybees — instead each mama bee fills her own individual tube with pollen and lays a single egg inside. These amazing little pollinators visit flowers to gather food and help plants grow fruits, vegetables, and seeds. Unlike honeybees, mason bees almost never sting, making them great neighbors!
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Butterfly House — Butterflies need safe places to shelter from wind, rain, and predators when they aren't out visiting flowers. This specially designed house gives them a quiet hideaway with narrow slots just the right size for folded wings. See how many different butterfly species you can spot fluttering around the garden nearby!
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Eastern Screech-Owl — Don't let the name fool you — the Eastern Screech-Owl's call is actually a soft, wavering whinny that sounds almost spooky on a quiet night. These small owls are expert hunters, catching mice, insects, and even small frogs after dark using their incredible night vision. If you peek carefully at the entrance hole during the day you might catch one napping in the doorway!
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Frog Hotel — Frogs need more than just a pond — they also need cool, moist hiding spots on land to rest and stay safe from predators. This cozy shelter gives local frogs a shady retreat close to the water where they can recharge between swimming sessions. Frogs are fantastic pest controllers, gobbling up hundreds of insects every single night!
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Toad House — Toads might not be as flashy as some of their neighbors on the trail, but they are absolute insect-eating champions — a single toad can devour up to 10,000 bugs in one summer! Unlike frogs, toads prefer dry land and love hiding under cool, shady shelters close to the ground. If you move slowly and quietly you just might spot one tucked inside taking a daytime snooze!
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House Wren — House Wrens are tiny brown birds with enormous personalities and an incredibly loud, bubbly song for their size. They stuff their nest boxes completely full of twigs — sometimes filling the entire box before adding a cozy grass cup for their eggs right in the middle. Keep an ear out for their cheerful chattering song; once you learn it you'll hear wrens everywhere!
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Purple Martin — Purple Martins are North America's largest swallow and one of the most acrobatic fliers you'll ever see, twisting and diving through the air at high speed to catch insects on the wing. These sociable birds love living together in colonies and return to the same houses year after year after spending the winter all the way down in South America. Look up on a sunny morning and you might see them performing their amazing aerial show right overhead!
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Bats — Bats are the superheroes of the night sky, using echolocation to navigate in total darkness by sending out sound waves and listening for the echoes that bounce back. A single brown bat can catch over 1,000 mosquitoes in just an hour — making them some of the most helpful wild neighbors imaginable. Watch for them at dusk as they swoop silently overhead, taking over right where the Purple Martins left off!
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Eastern Bluebird — Eastern Bluebirds are one of the most beautiful birds in North America, with brilliant blue wings and a warm rusty-orange chest that practically glows in the sunshine. Bluebirds nearly disappeared decades ago when they ran out of natural nesting cavities, but people built nest box trails just like these and helped bring them back. You'll often spot them perched on a low post or fence scanning the ground below for beetles and grasshoppers to eat!
