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In 2003 local birder Gloria Peterson attended the Minnesota Bluebird Recovery Program Expo, held in North Branch.  As the conservancy effort working to reboot numbers of bluebirds continued over the ensuing 19 years,  those glorious and perky birds became part of her life. She was recruited at that expo to monitor a length of a bluebird nesting box trail, “I have a hard time with the word no,” she quipped.  

From April to sometimes as late as August or September, she has regularly visited pairs of bluebird houses in an area she estimates is about three miles by foot.  In late April she had not observed any eggs laid by bluebirds yet.  The cold definitely impacts their activity.  Last year when ice storms were evident south of here, the populations were drastically reduced, according to the Bluebird Recovery Program national observers.

Gloria’s local data and insightful observations along with photos, are also submitted to the Bluebird Recovery Program or BBRP.
Those early days counting eggs and the fledglings that survived, plus maintaining the man-made nesting boxes, had an element of danger.

Gloria explains the “trail’ in the Bluebird Recovery Program (a non-profit formerly affiliated with Audubon) originally was along the I-35 freeway.  Bluebird nest boxes are most effective when other birds like swallows and cowbirds aren’t attracted to them and these other birds like nesting where there’s overhanging trees and scrub brush shelter.  Freeway arteries are cleared and wide open.  Peterson recalls getting a special placard to display in her vehicle window saying she had permission to pull off onto the freeway shoulder.  She’d wade through the ditches to check on nest boxes on fenceposts as semi trucks sped past this brave eco-warrior doing her part to prop-up a species people would miss if it disappeared.  

She was grateful when her trail of bluebird houses was relocated to a bucolic, open prairie area in Wild River State Park.  She’s been the bluebird nest monitor at Wild River for 15 years now.

Gloria says her two favorite days monitoring the boxes are the day of hatching,  and the day about two weeks earlier, when she finds eggs in the box.

Today’s new and improved bluebird nest boxes are actually tubes.

The nesting structures  preferred are PVC pipe that hangs vertically off hangers attaching the tube tightly to a roof board.  Nests fit perfectly at the bottom of the tube. These were adapted by a guy named Gilbertson, from Aitkin, hence they are known as ‘Gilbertson’ nest boxes.  Fitted onto taller poles that raccoons find difficult to negotiate— and smaller protective space inside— the bluebirds now have fewer struggles with predators.  Tree swallows are still a problem, but by erecting the nesting structures in pairs,  one box can be claimed by swallows and that leaves one for bluebirds.  The pairs are at least 10 feet apart and scattered on the “trail” up to 1,000 feet apart.

Gloria can tell if bluebirds are in the PVC shelter before even opening it.  Feathers visible at the hole mean tree swallows residing there.  If she spots some moss,  it’ll be chickadees. Sticks poking out the hole mean there’s a wren family and wrens are the worst. Gloria has witnessed baby bluebirds being ejected by wrens and bluebird eggs have been dumped on the ground.

The earliest she’s observed eggs is April 15 and last year she saw her first May 4.  She has seen no eggs yet, she noted last week.

The more she learns about birds the more she is convinced they are precious and wise.  The baby bluebirds instinctively know to keep their bodies positioned with their wider, heat conducting butt ends meeting in the center conserving warmth.  Beautifully colored blue feathers and graphic markings as feathers take form and grow, resemble a flower when looking down the tube onto the nest, Gloria remarked.  The visual aspect in fact, shows up in her square she painted for the quilt promotion along Highway 8, you’ll know it. by the bluebird blue egg shapes in the center.

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