Keith has been the Trail Leader on the Lovettsville Bluebird Trail since 2015. When he started monitoring, the trail was set in a “wild area” of a defunct farm that was only bush-hogged two times per year. By June the area had waist-high sticker bushes and poison ivy along with lots of ticks.
Keith Nusbaum with pelicans.
In the middle of the 2020 bluebird nesting season, giant earth-moving machinery appeared in the area of the Lovettsville bluebird trail, giving Keith (and monitor Robert Elder) about two hours to remove the nest boxes so they were not destroyed. Thus began the transformation of a defunct farm into the Lovettsville Community Park – a project that is now completed. Through Keith’s dedication and perseverance, this land, with the newly formed park, remains the home of the Lovettsville Bluebird Trail.
Keith says, “My favorite ‘nature thing’ is anything, animal, vegetable, or mineral, that gives me pause to say, ‘Wow!'” Keith is curious and likes the process of seeking answers, realizing “the more you know, the less you know.”
He was “raised as a feral kid” and his first pet (other than a dog or cat) was “a crawdad I caught in the creek behind my house. My mom put it in a cheap fish aquarium. The next morning it molted. To me, aged about six, it was pure magic that now I had two crawdads! Since that time it’s been one astonishing encounter after another. Last week, while working on an old truck I found a bat sleeping in the air cleaner.”
Curiosity and love of nature is a common thread throughout the Loudoun Wildlife community. Many thanks to Keith and all our volunteers for helping create a place where people and wildlife thrive together.