”Life is sweet, tender and complete when you find the bluebird of happiness…and you must sing his song, as you go along, when you find the bluebird of happiness.” Song: “Bluebird of Happiness” 1934
What is a bluebird trail? From my readings and observation, it is a series of three or more bluebird boxes, at least 100 yards apart in an area of grass and some trees, lovingly maintained and diligently monitored. Jennifer Rude Klett, in a June 2020 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, reported that Wisconsin leads the nation in numbers of bluebird fledglings per year. Her interview with Patrick Ready, president of the Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin (BRAW), opened my eyes to the unbelievable impact of volunteers in saving the eastern bluebird from extinction. Due to loss of habitat and nesting sites in dead trees, as well as predation by starlings and house sparrows, there were only about 600 bluebirds left in Wisconsin in the 1960’s – a 90% population decline! In 2012, by contrast, BRAW members logged 32,000 fledglings from their happy trails of bluebird boxes! That was a record year, but yearly baby bird numbers are currently 20,000 or so.
The BRAW website (www.braw.org) is full of valuable information. It has many bluebird videos and explains in detail the bluebird lifecycle. It also has information on other cavity nesters, such as tree swallows, chickadees, house wrens and house sparrows so that their eggs and nests can be identified when they are occupying a bluebird box. The female constructs the nest in the box or cavity the male chooses, and both participate in feeding the young. Bluebirds breed two to three times in one season from March through August. At 4-6 eggs per clutch, that can add up to 12-18 newbies per year per bluebird pair!
Our bluebird trail at Pleasant Valley consists of 15 boxes that extend from the pump house in the valley to the far overlook at the very top of the south slope goat prairie. On March 19, Sandy Stark and I replaced 5 of the most decrepit boxes with new ones built by William Damm. The task was easier with two pairs of hands. We used old hardware creatively, and we even preserved the quirky tilt of a box or two. I subsequently replaced a 6th box near the rocky overlook. At left and below, I’m removing an old and showing off a new box. It was a cold and very windy day.
Below are a few of the old boxes in various stages of decomposition. They were new in September, 2010. When the roofs crack and leak, and the sides sag, it’s time to replace. The blue-green scales are lichen, not roof shingles. Kathie monitors all the boxes every Sunday afternoon and records bluebird and chickadee and wren and tree swallow and mouse activity. ETC
I’ve included just below the plan that William used for our boxes. It’s from the BRAW newsletter, Wisconsin Bluebird, Spring 2022, volume 37, number 1, page 13.
Noel Guards
Remembering that some of our bluebird eggs were treated very badly by predators of unknown identity last year, I contacted Mark Martin at Goose Pond to ask his advice on which model of bluebird box predator guard he would recommend. He and Pat Ready suggested the Noel guard. They are easy to make and inexpensive. They are effective against raccoons, opossum, cats and other predatory mammals, and they also deter birds of prey such as hawks, blue jays and crows, but not starlings or house sparrows. The latter, if you can believe it, smash bluebird eggs, kill the young and also kill adult bluebirds. Some say that Noel guards do not stop snakes or chipmunks and that stovepipe baffles (8” x 24”) are much more effective all-around guards ($57.00 on Amazon).
I joined a group of volunteers at Goose Pond on April 5 to learn how to make Noel guards (pictured at left). We used half-inch hardware cloth cut into 15 inch by 6 inch pieces in the pattern shown below. Note the position of two lines of nine squares underlined in red. These will eventually be folded back to become the attachment area for the guards. The flatwire cutout is folded (at the position of the red arrows, see below) to form a rectangular tube that can be securely fastened to the bluebird box with wood screws and giant washers, as shown.
Mark gave us 15 of the wire cutouts, and I folded them all in an hour and a half the next day using a large metal level to help me make straight-line folds (below). I fastened the ends together (yellow squiggly areas below) with a needle-nose pliers, folded back the attachment sites (underlined in red), splayed apart the pointy wire ends at the opening (bottom), and bandaged three fingers to stop the bleeding.
Kathie Brock and I outfitted all 15 boxes with their new guards on April 9. She held the guard in place while I drilled pilot holes and handed me the tiny wood screws. Aside: It’s much easier to install these guards on new boxes in the barn before they are set onto their metal poles in the field. We heard our first phoebe and field sparrow of the season on this day.
Happily, the bluebirds seem to have accepted their new digs and predator guards. They zip out of the box and through the wire tunnel like it isn’t even there. As of the beginning of May, most of the boxes had 4 or more bluebird eggs, some had begging chicks! Two or three have remained empty, which is not unusual, but we worry. We expect second broods before August.
I hope you all get to hear the bluebird song many times this summer. Some know it as a very quickly sung: “cheer cheerful charmer.”
”…Bluebird, flying high, tell me what you sing. If you could talk to me, what news would you bring of voices in the sky…” Moody Blues 1968, Voices in the Sky
At left, bird’s eye view through Noel guard.
