It has been an interesting year for our little group of Bluebird lovers. There was lots of activity at our boxes this year. Here are the quick stats of 2018:
We were lucky to have 15 Bluebird nesting attempts. Eight of those attempts resulted in at least one Bluebird fledgling. The total number of Bluebirds that fledged from our boxes in 2018 was 30. This total is a bit less than last year, but we made some changes to some nestboxes that may have contributed to the dip in number. Other factors that we take into account are weather, parasites, and predators.
Male Eastern Bluebird tidying up the nest. © A. T. Baron
We also had a spike in House Wrens this year, and they use the same nest boxes. House Wrens are more aggressive at claiming the nest boxes than Bluebirds, and we try to pull the false Wren’s nests from the nestboxes right away. This action gives our Bluebirds some extra opportunities to claim a box for themselves.
Female Eastern Bluebird in a nestbox. © A. T. Baron
While we were busy monitoring the nest boxes, we lost a founding member of our organization, Len Anderson. If it wasn’t for him, we might not have come this far. We will miss him greatly.
We decided to honor him by renaming our organization The Len Anderson Memorial Bluebird Trail. We have already made the changes to our website and Facebook page, but we still need to update our signage for 2019. In the event you find one of our boxes damaged in the meantime, you can contact us with the old email.
Thank you to all of the volunteers that collected data during the 2018 season. We hope you will continue to help out in the next year.
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer for our group, feel free to contact us. We will post the date of our Spring Meeting early next year. Until then, keep yourselves warm for the winter and keep an eye out for our little blue friends.