Helping the Bluebirds

One of our most favorite signs of spring laced the air in our woods early on the morning of Feb. 20. A male Cardinal, perched near the very tip of a tall Basswood tree sang his heart out—“CHEERrr – CHEERrr – WHITcheer – WHITcheer,” trying to impress his lady love nearby. A few days earlier a male White-breasted Nuthatch delicately fed his partner a few hulled sunflower seeds at our large platform feeder, perhaps indicating to her what a faithful husband and provider he will be.

We bought our present property, consisting of mostly young mixed hardwood trees with a small number of conifers, in 1977. Our hopes were that Eastern Bluebirds would nest in the several boxes we put up along the western edge of the property. All that accepted the boxes were Tree Swallows, an excellent species but not the Bluebirds we were hoping for.

A nest of five bluebird eggs.

It wasn’t until 1982 that we were able to begin building our new home and, much to our great joy, the electric power lines which were brought in to the building site soon attracted some Bluebirds. Finally, in the early spring of 1983, a few of our nest boxes were taken over and used by the Bluebirds. Mown areas adjacent to the boxes were important, enabling the birds to perch on the power lines above, scan the ground below for insects and fly down to catch them. As Dr. Kent Hall, one of the leaders of the Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin (BRAW) maintains, in order to succeed in attracting bluebirds to your nest boxes you must learn to think like a Bluebird.

Our own bluebird trail increased modestly through the first 20 years we lived in our current home. Gradually we asked nearby property owners if we could place some of our nest boxes on their property. The boxes nearly always are set along a road and fence line close to where the roadside mowers or land owners kept the grass and weeds cut quite short, in nearly all cases beneath overhead power lines. The boxes are often set up close to open fields and within around 50 feet of trees, to which the fledgling Bluebirds can fly after leaving the nest box on their “maiden flights.” The baby Bluebirds do not land on the ground after leaving their nest box but rather fly to a nearby tree where the adults will continue to feed them for several days. Agreement with our project has become highly favorable with the owners. By last year we had erected and were monitoring weekly 48 boxes, all within a three-mile radius of our home.

We drive around the countryside and see so many bluebird boxes that have been improperly erected on wooden posts which are open invitations to climbing predators including Raccoons, Opossums, House Cats, Squirrels and others that will eat the eggs and/or young Bluebirds in the nests. Mounting nest boxes on wooden posts is simply a terrible mistake. Far better, in order to give the Bluebirds greater chances of successfully raising their young, is to use metal electric conduit posts, PVC pipes or strong metal baffles on the posts.

Roy’s new nest box design with two openings.

In the early spring of 2008 Dr. Kent and Sue Hall came from their home in Stevens Point to Sturgeon Bay to present a bluebird nest box program. It was well-received and brought more members to BRAW and gave encouragement to many people to start their own bluebird trails. Having attended several state annual meetings of the BRAW group, Charlotte and I became aware of their hard work and dedication toward increasing the Bluebird population in our state. We decided to become the Door County coordinators for the group and have been eager to help individuals and groups to learn more about maintaining a Bluebird trail and especially the highly important job of monitoring the boxes weekly and keeping good records.

Here is a brief summary of our first three years as Door County coordinators. For 2007 we had 43 trails with 58 monitors and 255 boxes resulting in 730 bluebirds, 250 Tree Swallows, 90 House Wrens and 6 Black-capped Chickadees. In 2008 there were 48 trails with 64 monitors and 411 nest boxes resulting in 876 bluebirds, 434 Tree Swallows, 245 House Wrens and 7 Black-capped Chickadees. The 2009 season had 49 trails with 67 monitors and 445 nest boxes resulting in a total of 1,023 bluebirds, 567 Tree Swallows, 287 House Wrens and 29 Black-capped Chickadees. We had 20 trails with 31 monitors who have reported all three years and six of these trails have substantially increased their numbers of nest boxes. In 2009 we had 13 new trails with 17 new monitors submitting reports.

State records were set for 2009 with Door County being one of only five counties in the state producing more than 1,000 bluebirds. We also learned that we rated number two in the number of monitors, behind Eau Claire County, which had many Girl Scouts participating. There is a lot of open land in Door County well suited for Bluebird nesting. Our next challenge is to increase awareness and interest for Bluebird trails in southern Door County, south of Sturgeon Bay.

A male bluebird at a bath in winter.

Several different kinds of Bluebird nest boxes have been used in our state and county with the NABS (North American Bluebird Society) plan, having a side opening for both monitoring and cleaning, being the most widely used. The plan Charlotte and I, along with quite a few other Door County bluebirders, have found to be very good is the K-style (Kentucky) box. The original plan called for only a top opening which is ideal for monitoring but difficult for cleaning at the end of each clutch of birds. I improved the plan by making both a top opening for monitoring and a side opening for easy cleaning, quite simple to do. I use a double-thickness bottom so the box can be placed directly on top of the pole rather than having to use fastening brackets on one of the sides or the back. Send me $2 and I will be happy to send you a very complete set of plans for the revised version of the K-Style box. My address is: 3962 Hillside Rd., Egg Harbor, WI 54209.

Dr. Kent Hall, of BRAW, will be presenting a very complete program on bluebirding at the Crossroads Learning Center at Sturgeon at 7 pm on Tuesday, March 9. The program is free to the public. Kent will also have NABS-style nest boxes and poles for sale which all will benefit the non-profit BRAW organization. Should you be interested in joining this great group, the annual dues are $15 per person or $25 for a family membership. As a member you will receive four excellent newsletters that are like high quality magazines filled with valuable information on how you can improve your nest boxes and trails. Their web address is http://www.braw.org.

Become a dedicated bluebirder and someone up there will like you!