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Big TrailsFrom: johnbrocks"at"juno.com Question for those who monitor large trails. How do you get around your trail? Do you walk and back pack everything you might need? Are your houses located in such a way you can drive from one to the other? Bike? Drive some, walk some? How often do you monitor, how many houses and how long does it take you? John Brocks From: "Bruce Burdett" blueburd"at"srnet.com John, et al, From: "Doug Rohde" d.rohde"at"attbi.com John, My respoonse is similar to Bruce's. I can get near to most of my nestboxes (51) by car. Six of the nestboxes are on a 1/2 mile nature trail so that's the longest walk. Otherwise the distance from the car is as little as 10' and as much as 400'. The furthest nestbox is about 5 miles from home. We try to do our normal monitoring once a week. Occasionally we will stop by a nestbox between the weekly monitoring trip if we have special concerns or needs. Usually my wife and I go together for the monitoring, so we're able to take turns and do it fairly quickly. If we don't have any maintenance activities, like nestbox repairs/replacement, it takes us 2-3 hours. (In June/July when temperatures are consistently in the 90's+ we are a bit slower.) We plan to expand the trail to 80 nestboxes next year and anticipate a 4 hour monitoring trip then. Doug Bluebirds across Texas .... one nestbox at a time ----- Original Message ----- ... To: bluebird-l"at"cornell.edu On Wed, 12 Jun 2002 21:44:17 -0500 johnbrocks"at"juno.com writes: I have 54 boxes at this time. I walk my trail and back pack every thing I need. On a good day it will take me four hours. I monitor one day a week unless I know some thing IS wrong and I need to do it more. It is in For-Mar Nature Presrve in Genesee County, Michigan. Maynard Sumner NABS MBS GAS OBS OBC NAHC NAFC Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. From: "emcooper" emcooper"at"bayou.com I have two nest boxes that are about 15' from Cooper Rd. where the traffic is
55 miles per hour. I put them there the first year mostly just to see what would
happen. They must absolutely love them as they nest three times in them and they
love to sit on the power line above them. The first nesting cycle, two other
nest boxes were left vacant that I thought were in a much more suitable place
just across the slough from the others about 300 ft. I have not lost babies and
had very few infertile eggs with them nesting there. So, if they are happy, so
am I!! ... From: "Bill Darnell" bdarnel3"at"bellsouth.net Hey, Phil, I like that! I use a 300 Honda ATV, don't know how I would do the
things I do without it! Bill TN well, I use a golf cart, mainly, because that's where my first trail is. But when not on that one, I use this rig, either one or both of them, depending upon the conditions: Phil Berry Gulf Breeze, Florida From: "emcooper" emcooper"at"bayou.com Hi Bill, my trail is about two miles long. Sometimes I ride the four-wheeler, sometimes I ride in the car. If it is muddy, I use the four-wheel drive truck. Most days, I use my two legs! :) Evelyn Cooper Delhi, La. 32.4450 Lat. N., 91.5760 Long. W. approx. 600 ft. north and east of Muddy Slough Bluebirds along the bayous.......where we lend a helping hand! ----- Original Message ----- ... Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2002 06:31:42 -0700 (PDT) From Samuel S. Lewis State Park, I usually make my rounds on week-day mornings and the park is pretty quiet. I hiked my trail on Sunday this past week and got a whole new perspective. The entrance field was filled with people instead of birds. Thankfully most of the bluebirds and tree swallows fledged from this area earlier in the past week. One box has bluebirds working on a second nest and two other boxes have swallows with nestlings The interior of the park fledged nineteen Carolina chickadees from four boxes and house wrens fledged six young from one box. This is the best year for chickadees in the three years I've been monitoring the trail. Most of these boxes are from the original trail and I lost most of my wrens to predators and chickadees were lost to house wrens. I've replaced a number of the boxes and added predator guards to them. Much of the success of the chickadees is due to the reduced nesting of house wrens, though, with only one nest so far this year. The exit field has the only active eastern bluebird nest with five hatchlings. There are three boxes with tree swallow nestlings and two more with eggs. I have two house sparrow nests that will be trapped out as soon as their tree swallow neighbors fledge. So far this year I lost no birds to house sparrows or predators. I hope this is a trend which continues. As to how I check my trail....It takes me about an hour and a half to check
thirty one boxes on a hundred acre state park. My trail follows the road through
the park with a loop on the outside of the road and double back on the inside.
Many of the boxes are viewable from the road or within a short hike. The main
tools I carry are pen and pad, an 8x25 monocular and a Swiss army knife. I
often carry sparrow traps, a bag of assorted hardware, bags for old nests and
a paint brush for cleaning. When removing house sparrows I can usually set
a trap and return to the box as I leave the park to claim my prize.... From: Dottie, Hickory Hollow, Brown County, Indiana [mailto:yumyumkatts"at"voyager.net] Sent: Saturday, June 12, 2004 8:35 PM Subject: BB Box Trails I just got back from the East Coast and, while visiting Antietam Civil War battlefield, I saw a big BB box trail there. I also saw another BB box trail on George Washington Parkway and several others in Virginia including the Eastern Shore. It was nice to see so many BB boxes. Dottie, Hickory Hollow Brown County, Indiana |
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