KFN BLUEBIRD NESTING BOX TRAIL - PAST AND PRESENT

The Eastern Bluebird is a member of the thrush family and a species native to North America. It prefers to be on the edge of open areas, nesting in natural cavities. The pioneering methods of early settlers were very important to this bird's success in the area. They were commonly sighted in large numbers and well established by the early 1900's.

Beginning in the 1950's however, agricultural methods started to change which eliminated many of the nesting cavities critical to the bird's survival. Dead trees were removed, rail fences replaced by steel and wire and the steady decline of bluebird populations had begun. By the mid 1970's Eastern Bluebirds were seldom heard or seen and reduced to the point of becoming an endangered species. Replacing the lost nesting sites was to be a major part of any possible recovery for these birds.

Bill Watts was a member of the Kawartha Field Naturalists and keenly interested in the Eastern Bluebirds' revival. He started building nesting boxes and placed them in suitable habitat around the Fenelon Falls area. The boxes were located along a route easily accessible by foot or vehicle and called a "trail". The route was thereafter called a "Bluebird Nesting Box Trail"!

After the death of Bill Watts, his family asked the Kawartha Field Naturalists to carry on with his project, generously donating his nesting box trail, library of books and financial support to help maintain boxes and build new ones. This was the beginning of the "KFN Bluebird Nesting Box Trail".

The KFN formed a committee, did some research and got busy building nesting boxes. Some existing boxes were replaced with most going to new locations where permission was gained from the landowner. The boxes were monitored and records were tallied and reported to the Ontario Eastern Bluebird Society annually.

The KFN membership has been expanding, maintaining and monitoring the trail for more than 10 years now and fledged many young Eastern Bluebirds over that time. The record high year was 1998, fledging 161 birds! The trail expansion has leveled off at approximately 100 boxes monitored each season with an average of 80 to 100 birds being fledged.

The support and participation of the KFN membership is the active ingredient that makes the trail successful year after year. There is some work involved maintaining and monitoring nesting boxes whether it is one in your backyard or a trail with several. It takes time but you will be rewarded with the enjoyment of seeing and hearing an Eastern Bluebird's song and by knowing that you are helping to re-establish this beautiful bird in Ontario.

February 8th, 2008

Good news again - our number of young bluebirds fledged has increased significantly over last year! Better overall weather conditions and food supply favoured successful first nestings. These are a major part of having a successful year. Good nest box maintenance and monitoring practices are equally important and our KFN members do a great job at this. It shows in our trail results! Keep up the good work KFN'ers, we sincerely appreciate it.

Now for the numbers as compared to 2006:

We continue to report our counts to the Ontario Eastern Bluebird Society (O.E.B.S.) but are still not receiving any overall results from them. We hope they will become available again soon.

Deer, squirrels, wild turkeys and other regular winter birds have been visiting our backyard but we are really looking forward to seeing a bluebird again. It is only 6-8 weeks before they will be returning to our area! Where did that year go?

Well that wraps up another season. We really enjoy working with everyone on the "trail" and hope to see you out there soon.

Yours in Bluebirding

Louise and Tom Horne

February 4th, 2009

The reports are in and the numbers tallied. Congratulations to everyone who participated on another very successful year for the KFN Bluebird Trail. Good maintenance and monitoring practices helped us keep losses to a minimum in spite of a severely cold week in May. We kept most of the increase in fledglings that we gained last year thanks to the good work of dedicated KFN members. You make it happen!!!

Following are the numbers compared to our 2007 report:

We continue to report our counts to the Ontario Eastern Bluebird Society (O.E.B.S.) but have not received back any overall results from them. They have been making some organization changes which may correct the situation soon.

Well that wraps up another season and it’s only 6 – 8 weeks until the cycle will start all over again! Our Bluebirds will return as early as mid-March so keep a sharp watch for them. You might be the first person to see one back in our area. We really enjoy working on the “trail” with everyone. We hope our KFN Bluebird Trail members will set a new record for the number of birds we fledge in 2009! Good luck to all our participants.

Yours in Bluebirding

Louise and Tom Horne

December 15, 2009

Tom and Louise Horne have compiled the eastern bluebird nesting results for the KFN bluebird trail and have done the required reporting results for some twelve years. Anyone that has worked with Louise and Tom will agree that they always do a first rate job, whatever the endeavour and are a difficult act to follow!

Ruth and I have provided nesting habitat for pairs of common loons and have reported overall loon nesting results to Bird Studies Canada for Four Mile lake for some eighteen years. We agreed to succeed Louise and Tom and to compile and report the details of eastern bluebird nesting for our trail beginning in 2009. Unfortunately it has not been a good year for breeding success due to some backward weather and a few hungry black bears during the nesting season. 2010 will be better! We already have a couple of additional monitors that willreporting nesting results to us in 2010! There are initiatives under way to construct additional nesting boxes and we have requests from a number of our participants for boxes.

Many thanks to those of you who have reported nesting results to us this year and we look forward to working with you again in 2010. Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of assistance.

The following table shows the comparison to the 2008 results.

Many of the boxes were occupied by Tree Swallows and House Wrens. It seems that in summary for this year that "bad weather + bears = nesting unsuccess".

Yours in blue birding,

Vic and Ruth Orr