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Bluebird Evolution and History (Part 2)Date: Sat, 4 Nov 2000 23:55:43 -0800 I am becoming more and more convinced that the house sparrow had absolutely nothing to do with the dramatic drop in the population of Eastern Bluebirds that occurred sometime between 1940 and 1950. I had previously written that older farmers here in Northeast Georgia recalled that the populations of house sparrows dropped right along with the Eastern Bluebirds. One such farmer said that until the early to mid 40's, hundreds of house sparrows roosted in the attic spaces of houses and in barns in large communal roosts. It was not unusual to fill several bushel baskets of nesting material when exterminating house sparrows. I recently discovered the following text in a 1946 Audubon Bird Guide: "Today the available habitat is carrying all the English Sparrows it can accommodate, and the same high reproductive rate produces no year to year increase in total population." And, in the 1919 Standard dictionary of facts it is written that the house sparrow "OFTEN does great damage to cornfields and gardens". Based on these three sources I believe that more than 20 years before any decline in bluebird populations was experienced, there were hundreds of times more house sparrows than there are today, and, that one farmer I talked to is correct when he said that the house sparrow populations were decimated in the 40's and have never come close to their previous populations. When you also consider that the house sparrow's population is restricted to mans occupation, and how much land still is not within 5 miles of any significant development, it becomes even harder to believe that the house sparrow was much of a factor in the near elimination of the Eastern Bluebird from its entire range. I believe it is important to know what happened to the population of Eastern Bluebirds so it isn't threatened again. Initially it might sound reasonable when it is explained that the Eastern Bluebird couldn't compete with the house sparrow and starlings for nesting cavities. But consider also that any walk in the country where there are even a few trees of at least 30 years of age will reveal dozens of cavities suitable for bluebird nesting far from any house sparrow populations. Suitable nesting cavities in trees are not rare by any means. Further, this year one of our list members photographed an eastern bluebird that nested on TOP of a fence post and the nest attempt was successful. This year I observed a bluebird nest successfully from a hole in the wall of an old building in a house sparrow infested town. Another list member reported a bluebird nesting in a shoebox in a dressing room of an athletic facility. This demonstrates how adaptable this bird is in its nesting habits. Even acceptance of a nest box is proof of how adaptable the bird is in selecting nesting sites. How then could lack of nesting sites have led to the Eastern Bluebird's near elimination when for more than three decades when populations of house sparrows were many times what they are today, farmers enjoyed Eastern Bluebirds coming and going to their nest boxes on top of fence posts in their back yard vegetable gardens at the same time their houses and barns were home to literally hundreds of house sparrows? What really caused the near extinction of the Eastern Bluebird? Gary Springer Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2000 07:33:39 EST try cold weather. i believe it comes in cycles for the bluebird. to quote one article: "many individuals of the species remain during the winter months in northern latitudes. a 'nor' easter' can bring snow and freezing temperatures.........which infrequently cost him his life.a real tragedy of thsi kind occurred in the spring of 1895, when many species of migratory birds, but especially bluebirds, were caught in the wave of extremely cold weather..............thousands of bluebirds perished in the bitter cold which swept through the middle and gulf states. their frozen bodies were found everywhere---in barns and other outhouses where the poor things had vainly sought shelter; in the fields and woods, and even along the roadsides. in thenlocalities affected,they were entirely exterminated." quoted from BIRDS OF AMERICA (1917). it's my belief that it's nature's way of thinning out the crop....surely it killed hosp as well. BTW, this very same freeze killed off the idea of growing citrus in my area (nw florida). until that spring, oranges were grown and sold in the entire gulf coast area. Phil Berry Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2000 06:59:50 -0600 Gary Springer has provoked some deeper thoughts on this "mystery". I would greatly appreciate hearing Keith and Dean expound with their thoughts and ideas concerning this matter. To date, some ideas have been advanced, but none are broad enough to cover the entire Sialia species. My personal belief is that "a series of events" occurred which led to the low populations of Sialia. Fread J. Loane Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2000 11:21:22 -0800 Thank you for putting forth this idea Phil. Without more investigation, the possibility that extremely severe weather was a major contributing factor in the disappearance of Eastern Bluebirds can not be ruled out. However, I am skeptical. Death leaves an indelible imprint and kill offs of the magnitude you mentioned are well documented, remembered and talked about for many years, as is evidenced by the 1917 writing, a full 22 years after the 1895 killing freeze. And to be the primary factor, it seems it would have to have been even more severe because I've neither heard nor read of other periods when Eastern Bluebirds became rare. Has anyone read about, heard people talk about, or remember a wide spread kill off similar to the one cited for 1895, in the years between the early 40's and the early 50's? Hard freezes are also well remembered. I'll have to canvas the old timers to see what years they remember as having devastating effect. One Georgian remembers a spring when temperatures dropped so low that the base of huge hickory trees split open with a loud crack because the sap inside them expanded upon freezing. I believe that was in the 30's but I'll confirm the year. Does anyone know of a web site that would present enough meteorological data to determine the merits of this idea? Gary Springer Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2000 11:02:08 -0600 ...Loss of trees is unbelievable due to the 3 year drought in our area! No eastern red cedar berries, hackberry, huckleberry & even sumac is lacking fruit. First time I have ever seen large trees filled with mistletoe (spelled missile toe by my spell checker :-)!) that has the mistletoe hanging dead from the hot dry winds that ripped our area for a week during the drought. It is years like this with a combination of cold and ice/freezing rain the next winter that will wreck havoc on insect eating birds. During the 1950's dust bowl years a very similar event occurred followed by a ripping cold winter with records still standing and this had to decimate some species since bird feeding especially for those in the thrush family was non existent. The 1890's cold wave that wiped out the cattle industry from Montana to Texas and ended the open range and caused a world wide depression. (Holland's bulb industry was heavy into Narcissus and the Paper White varieties numbered over 1,800 named varieties and this same cold wave that went through the US also wiped out Europe's bulb industry has only less than 100 of these varieties surviving. Millions of acres of "hardy" bulbs froze in the ground in Europe. Check the record cold for your area and I believe you will find in January of the late 1890's that this two week period will still hold the all time record cold. No hay was cut and stacked during these years and longhorn cattle starved to death by the millions across the western states and English speculation in the meat industry in the US caused economic panic worldwide. In the 1930-40's tobacco reigned as king in the eastern half of the US as a farm crop. Tobacco barns utilized cheap wood and barrel type heaters to cure the crop. It was VERY common to find upwards of 300 bluebirds in a single barrel heater that had a cheap steel pipe for a smoke stack with no rain cap on top. Untold millions of cavity nesting birds were and are still killed each spring in these type chimney's. Each spring I get calls from people who have bluebirds to wood ducks to owls who are in their house fireplace! How many birds die in open topped pipe used for corner or stretcher posts for wire fences. Not until the 1950's did used oilfield pipe get cheap enough to use for fencing. During the world wars ALL unnecessary steel, copper and aluminum was melted down for the war effort. We have millions of open topped pipe used for goal posts and baseball back stops in ideal bluebird habitat. I have watched bluebirds enter and go down the open exhaust pipes on diesel tractors and trucks. When did these become common? After world war II. After World War II hundreds of thousands of cheap aircraft and thousands of well trained pilots were out of work, coupled with the recent discovery of DDT and sister insecticides and herbicides and fungicides and massive fields being plowed with cheap tractors and you have the invention of the crop dusters who could spray thousands of acres a day. Gary mentions the House Sparrows between the Great Wars wrecking the grain crops. In old government manuals you will find recipes for mixing a natural poison strychnine with grain to kill off the blackbirds, House Sparrows etc. Bob-o-links were poisoned in the south because they feasted on the gulf coast rice fields before migrating to Cuba and South America where they were eaten as a deliciously fatty meat bird. Even into the 1980's many southern towns used poison laced gopher bait (Milo, sorghum, corn mix) spread on down town roofs to wipe out pigeons which also thinned out House Sparrows, doves etc. Although it was illegal for farmers in the 1970's to poison flocks of birds eating up your grain crop county extension agents would show you how to set your gopher machine to apply the poisoned grain ABOVE ground instead of BELOW ground. This was widespread knowledge and would decimate the House Sparrows feeding in the fields. This "bait" was also used at grain elevators and feed mills and worked on rats as well as birds. This was a real No-No use of grain and few will ever admit to using this but was a very widespread practice. Many dairy operators and hog farmers would spread this to protect their expensive grain from going to birds instead of the livestock. Forest defragmentation has made it more difficult for slow flying birds to cross miles of mostly tree less land without becoming hawk food. Fly over the US and you will see from 33,000 feet that the only forests are really ribbons where it is too wet or too hilly to timber! The largest forest areas in states like Iowa or Kansas are actually in city limits as yard trees or around farm buildings and out lying houses! Changing from wood to metal fence posts! Again this happened after the early 1950's. This is probably one of the greatest "Myths" about bluebird decline in my estimation. OK in Texas it was required by state law that ALL fence posts along roadways be made from rot resistant wood, with bois de arc (bodark, hedge apple, horse apple tree) as the #1 wood. These posts from the 1930's to 1950's are still in use and almost NONE of them are big enough for a downy woodpecker to use. Even after 60 years they are still woodpecker proof! A bluebird needs at least a 3" round cavity and this takes at least a 5" post and these size wood posts were split into four other posts! Very few farmers had the wood or the time to place posts in the ground that were bigger than 6" which would attract a woodpecker! Besides how many actual cavities made by a woodpecker have you ever seen down at the 54" height of most fence lines? And even corner posts large enough to rot out the center and make an open topped cavity would have been the least likely nest site for the bluebirds to survive in due to weather,(a 2" rain will drown them, 2 hours of direct summer southern sun will fry the eggs or young) predators ETC. Most ranchers in our area covered the tops of their corner posts with sheet metal to prevent rot in the first place. Most wood line posts sold are less than 4" with a 3" top being very popular. Only reason these fence posts are listed as a decline reason as people walking by could actually see the eggs and few people climbed trees to where the woodpeckers were making millions of cavities. The switch from untreated power/telephone poles to creosote treated poles would have had a bigger effect on the decline in nest cavities but even so treated poles are riddled by woodpeckers in this area and this is the cause of the largest loss of rural electric power in East Texas. Cats: Everyone knows about them and they became popular in the 50's and 60's. kids & BB guns probably killed LOTS of tame bluebirds again their heyday in the 50's late 70's. So the reason for the decline in bluebirds from the 1900's would be weather (documented declines in bluebird survival in the severe winters of the late 1970's show that MAJOR losses as high as 60% occurred in many northern states and most southern states, go to breeding bird surveys for exact numbers of decline in your state) With super severe winters in the 1890's & 1950's with no breeding bird records we can guess the same thing happened. Then throw in the changes from wood to steel and mule plowing to tractor plowing, hand picking of pest insects to insecticides. It all boils down to more people abusing the land and not allowing enough space for all creatures. Bluebirds (all creatures) have always had a whole host of predators and natural disasters to deal with and evolve with. Add in a few man made hazards that will kill just 1% more of a species and they cannot hold their own. We wiped out the bear, cougar, eagles, wolves and allowed species like deer to multiply in many areas to the point of being pests but for predators of bluebirds like raccoons we now plant millions of acres of corn to increase their numbers, many people leave out cat and dog food for coons and opossums and the later have spread all the way to Canada due to free food. Snakes & cowbirds benefit from forest defragmentation. Falcons have easier hunting in open areas. Nearly every predator for bluebirds has increased in the last 50 years plus the above mentioned hazards. Sorry this post was too long but every acre of land covered by roads and every house built effects the number of other species allowed to live with the billions of humans on this fine earth. KK Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2000 07:37:48 -0800 OK- bluebird populations plunged in the 1940s and 1950s and, it seems, people think house sparrows proliferated. What happened in the 40s and 50s? WWII (the big one!) was ending, soldiers were returning, families were growing. Since they needed more space, more space there would be. Not only were many, many small woodlots cut down to make room for housing (and Eastern bluebirds are birds of open woodlands, not deep forests) but rampant urbanization took over. What is the greatest habitat for house sparrows? Urban environments! I monitor a 600 acre restoration site and have identified 175 species there but house sparrow is not one of them. I will tell you that there is one small bridge on our site that I refuse to cross because THAT bird is on the other side, close to the main road that marks the southern border of our site. We have no housing close to us, although a large development was put in on our western border about five years ago but there is enough separation that the house sparrow doesn't cross it. I grew up in Eastern Mazzzchusetts in the 50s and I remember blues in our back yard. Now I belong to a listserv here in IL. and I've only seen one person post that he has blues in his yard. Things are certainly more urban than they were then!As far as weather is concerned, I have read (most recently, in John Eastman's Birds of Filed and Shore) that "Northern bluebird populations always will, however, be subject to periodic crashes- probably once every 10 to 15 years- because of harsh weather, which results in widespread insect decreases and consequent bluebird starvation." Eastman's also says, though, on a considerably brighter note, that from 1996 when breeding bird studies began to 1996, eastern bluebird populations have increased 103 %! Since we KNOW house sparrow populations have not gone down, guess what is the most popular theory for this revival is? You and me! Judy Mellin Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2000 16:50:02 EST In a Message dated 11/5/00 10:14:20 AM Central Standard Time, springer"at"alltel.net writes: Has anyone read about, heard people talk about, or remember a wide spread kill off similar to the one cited for 1895, in the years between the early 40's and the early 50's? well, i can remember a few years ago, perhaps 1995, when bb's by the thousands died in alabama and georgia. it was in early april, a hard freeze. an old timer i knew in birmingham alabama (who has since died) who lost hundreds of bb's on his trail. up to a dozen in each box, crowded together to get warmth from each other. all of his birds died that spring. it can not be underestimated when asking "where did all the eastern bluebirds go?" Phil Berry Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2000 16:53:23 EST In a Message dated 11/5/00 11:04:06 AM Central Standard Time, kridler"at"1starnet.com writes: The 1890's cold wave that wiped out the cattle industry from Montana to Texas and ended the open range and caused a worldwide depression. if you have a texas almanac handy, you will find a year when galveston bay froze solid. if i recall correctly, it was 1899, just one year before the destructive hurricane in the same city. Phil Berry Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2000 17:20:26 EST Hi Phil, Any information on the plight of Bluebirds the year Mobile Bay and Lake Pontchartrain froze?( It may have been 1984.) I remember being in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, and many hotels and restaurants were without water due to frozen and broken plumbing. Conversely, could the unusually mild winters of recent years be responsible for the increase in the number of Bluebirds we're seeing now? Mary Jane Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2000 10:07:51 EST In a Message dated 11/4/00 11:49:02 PM Eastern Standard Time, springer"at"alltel.net writes: I believe it is important to know what happened to the population of Eastern Bluebirds so it isn't threatened again. I agree. In cases of birds that have become extinct that I have read about biologists speak of two kinds of causes. Ultimate - the prime mover that sets in motion the extinction - and proximate - later genetic, physiological and environmental factors that befall a species whose extinction has already been set in motion by the ultimate cause. Some examples: the ivory billed woodpecker - ultimate cause was deforestation, proximate causes were nest infestation by mites, scattered populations and inbreeding. The carolina parakeet - ultimate cause either deforestation or competition from the introduced european honeybee which took over the hollow trees that the birds are thought to have used for nesting, proximate causes were shooting and live capture. Both the above mentioned birds became extinct quite some time ago. The situation is probably more complicated for the bluebird whose numbers dropped to their lowest in the middle of the last (20th) century when there are many more factors to consider.Keith admirably outlined many of the various causes which may have contributed to the bluebird's endangerment. It seems to me that the ultimate cause for the bluebird's decline was probably in motion and that the early bluebirders saved the bird from finally succumbing to the proximate causes. Does this sound sensible to anyone else? It also seems to me that if some biologist or ornithologist has not already done the research to identify the different kinds of causes then someone should. This research has included in some of the other cases not only the writings of birders and ornithologists but oral reports by farmers etc. Just the kind of thing Gary is quoting. I think it would be important to know what factors we have the ability to and should be putting our energy into combatting the most. Jane Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2000 12:05:47 EST In a Message dated 11/6/00 7:48:54 AM Pacific Standard Time, JaneHopeC"at"aol.com writes: re extinction of carolina parakeet and ivory billed woodpecker If scientists can bring back the hairy mammoth, I think they could bring back the carolina parakeet and the ivory billed woodpecker and possibly bluebirds in the future. Yes it is easier to keep them from going extinct, but how about figuring out how to bury dead ones so that the DNA has the max chance of surviving? Afterall Cornell is involved. Maybe freezing is the best answer. Peat was a good preservative in Ireland. Afterall the Smithsonian has a library of seeds and also one for yeast (and fungi too?) in case they get wiped out. Tina Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2000 11:47:48 -0600 Tina--- You wouldn't have to bury dead birds so the DNA had the maximal chance of surviving . One would just have to extract DNA from a live bird and store it under the correct conditions. DNA frozen at -80C or in liquid nitrogen can last quite a long time. You would have better chances at obtaining good quality DNA this way. Jay Gilliam Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2000 13:29:21 EST Yes, I'm sure this is important work too, that should continue along with our efforts to stop species going extinct in the first place. I just don't know enough about it to know if it's ever really going to be possible. Wouldn't it be great though if we could have the ivory billed woodpecker, carolina parakeet and so many others back! Jane Gary & Nick: While most of the eastern United States was forested, there were numerous clearings where the Indians had their corn fields. Since the Indians used "slash and burn" agricultural techniques, there were always old fields which were gone to weeds and grass and older fields with brush, etc. In addition the Indians set fires to the woods in the autumn to clear away underbrush and make hunting easier and encourage new sprouts for deer browse. The result of these two cultural techniques was an open, park-like forest with numerous clearings, very different from the forest we know. This would have been ideal bluebird habitat. So the bluebird population, here in southern New England at least, probably was considerably higher than it is now. --Jill Miller Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2000 18:03:13 -0600 Here in what is known as "The Four State Area", comprised of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, anthropologists excavating beneath bluff shelters will often use a technique called Pollen Flotation Analysis. As ancient soils are exposed during the excavation of a site, some of that soil is put into water and the "scum" that forms on the top is then skimmed off, dried and then analyzed with a microscope. What scientists are looking for are minute grains of pollens which are nearly indestructible. They can then identify what the landscape was like at that point in time. Here in this area, it has been proven that it has always been what can be properly called "Edge Habitat". This would be natural prairie interspersed with woodlands and would be prime habitat for Sialia sialis to exist in.the time period I am talking about here is known as the Ozark Bluff Dweller Period and would predate Columbus and up into the 1600's. Fread J. Loane
From: "Bruce Burdett" Subject: Re: Wint. dist. Kerry, et al, My understanding is that "Sialia" is from the Greek, meaning simply "a kind of bird". The "sialis" indicates the particular commonest variety of "Sialia". Other varieties are "mexicana" and "currucoides." Neither "Sialia" nor "sialis" means specifically "Bluebird." Just who decided to name the Eastern Bluebird "Sialia sialis", and when it was so named, I have no idea. Many species are named in a similar way. For example, the Eastern Kingbird, which is the commonest one, is called "Tyrannus tyrannus", I'd guess because of its (notice NO apostrophe on 'its') habit of harassing various things, like crows. There's even a "Tyrannus melancholicus" or Tropical Kingbird, which is doubtless a very sad sort of bird. Some of these names are quite picturesque. The Raccoon (sp?) is called, I believe, "Procyon lotor," which means literally "Before meal, washer". Is that cool, or what? I'm sure that more scholarly types than I will give you more detailed information than this, including the exact meaning of "currucoides," which I can't find at the moment. Maybe it has to do with mountains. Bruce Burdett, Saskatchewan Bluebird Conspiracy, Regina, Sask. Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2000 16:47:28 -0600 From: "Fread J. Loane" Subject: Etymological Search: Sialia sialis, for Bruce & Kerry Etymology is part of the linguistic science of tracing the origin or development of a word, or other form, back as far as possible in its own language and then to its source in contemporary or earlier languages. In most dictionaries, etymologies are given in brackets [.....] following the part of speech label of a word. Let us explore the proper Latin bi-nominal (bi two; nominal names) for our Easter Bluebird: Sialia sialis. Sialia is a noun, and should always be capitalized. Phonetically speaking the word is pronounced correctly as "sy-al-lay-uh". The word comes from New Latin, that was taken from the Greek word "sialis", which means 'a bird', plus the New Latin ephiphet or inflection "ia". Now, that was fairly easy. Let us go to the next part of the name sialis. The second word sialis, can be, and often is, a descriptive word describing Sialia. The etymology of this word is also derived from New Latin, which was taken from the Greek word meaning "a bird", however in this context of being descriptive, we have to go one step further to the word Sialid. A sialid is a member of the insect family known as Sialidae. The Family of
insects known as Sialidae are neuopterous insects (belonging to the Order
Neuoptera; carnivorous insects including the Lace Wings and Ant Lions, with four
finely veined membranous wings and biting mouth parts), and within this Family
are the Dobson Flies......and here is where we get the descriptive part of
sialis. Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2000 18:40:14 -0500 From: Bill & Dot Forrester wforres1"at"twcny.rr.com Subject: Re: [Bluebird] Etymological Search: Sialia sialis, for Bruce & Kerry I agree, Fread. Latin is a neat and versatile language. As a former English teacher, I deeply regret that U.S. schools have dropped their requirements for Latin, leading to the poor vocabulary and lack of precise thinking of many otherwise well-prepared students. Thanks for the information on the Eastern Bluebird. Dot Latin was chosen for its precision and economy of words. Linnaeus made it a universal language; a valuable working tool, once acquired, opening stores of taxonomic information which could not be found anywhere else! As a professional horticulturist, my life is bathed in Latin binominals. From: Bet Zimmerman, ezdz"at"charter.net I see the following factoid all over the net - that bluebird populations declined 90% - but the dates vary - starting from the late 1800's, 1920 or 1930 up to 1970, 80 and 90. Does anybody know where this data point came from and what the REAL dates are? Bet from CT From: Evelyn Cooper, emcooper"at"bayou.com In "Bluebirds!" by Grooms & Peterson on page 63 it states: "Zeleny wrote that bluebird populations declined drastically from the late 1920's to the late 1970's. He estimated that eastern bluebird population had decreased by 90% over that period. Zeleny based those estimates on his own recollections and those of other friends of bluebirds who had lived long enough to see the disturbing changes in their populations. Beginning 1966, the U.S. Wildlife Service has conducted a comprehensive annual North American Breeding Survey (BBS). A paper written in 1990 by John R. Sauer and Sam Droege attemted to define trends in the BBS data. That data documented widespread bluebird declines in the 1966-1978 period."Extreme local declines" followed the especially severe winters of 1976, 1977 and 1978. Sauer and Droger's analysis suggested "climatic events' as the most significant factor." In some of the older books of the 1800's, it talks about thousands of Bluebirds being found dead during the severe cold spells. In "Bluebirds Forever", by Connie Toops, it states that it will happen again from time to time. Evelyn From: Stan Blaylock, stanb103"at"bellsouth.net" Sauer and Droger's analysis suggested "climatic events' as the most significant factor. What can we as Bluebirders do about this?? From: Karen
Harder, karenh"at"praxisworks.org In my 1949 copy of The Birds of Concord [MA], Ludlow Griscom says: "Eastern Bluebird Sialia sialis sialis (Linnaeus) Formerly a very common summer resident, abundant on migration; steadily declining since 1900. Subject to spring losses in the north and heavy winter losses in the south.... 1905-1917. Rapid decline. 1917-1927. Apparently continued decline. 1940-1948. Marked increase, the breeding birds more than doubling;..." That's for one very small area, of course, but it might be indicative of the overall trend. Karen Harder -- Cape Porpoise, Maine From: Lawrence Herbert, lherbert"at"4state.com Subject: EABL population There was a discussion recently on the population of our Eastern Bluebird. [note from webmaster: see myths discussion.] I have had bluebird trails in appropriate habitat since 1971. I randomly selected five years for those years for % of boxes used: 1976 - 18 % 1983 - 50 % 1987 - 64 % 1989 - 70% 1992 - 82 % (N = 111 nest boxes in Kansas and Missouri). It appears that the EABL population has increased in KS and MO for those years for sure. Good birding, Larry H. Joplin MO. Lawrence Herbert From: Keith & Sandy Kridler, txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net The governor of Ohio, Judson Harmon, designated Friday April 7, 1911 for observance of Arbor Day and also bird day. All teachers across the state were supposed to teach their students a minimum of two hours, (preferably they were to spend all day) about trees and birds. They were instructed to encourage the students to help the birds and plant trees and flowers all year long. They were to go out and actually plant trees and learn how to help the "good birds".All schools were sent out a 50 page supplement in 1911 to go along with the 1910 Arbor Day book. I found it interesting that the very FIRST nestbox pictured in the supplement is a two entrance holed nestbox hanging from a tree limb. Looks a LOT like the nestboxes Linda Violett's grand dad would have been using:-))) They show a family of baby birds nestled down in this two holed nestbox in the second photo. It is an old wood pail with three metal bands around the bucket and a sheet metal roof was installed over the top. They simply used the wire bucket handle to hang this nestbox over a sturdy tree limb pretty high up in a large tree. On the page "How to attract birds" Figure #1 is a 20 compartment purple martin house with a perch below every entrance hole. Fig. #2 shows a nestbox made from a hollowed out log hung horizontally. (fore runner of the Tree Branch Nest Box.) Fig. #3 shows a large floor size nestbox with the entrance hole offset to one side of the front with a perch below the hole. Fig. #4 shows a saucer filled with water for drinking or bathing sitting on a platform attached to a tree trunk. Fig.#5 is the interesting one! It shows a very deep nestbox with a tin can attached over the entrance hole as a predator guard. The sharp edges of the open can end face out with the "tongue" of the sharp lid used as a landing platform. Similar to Jim Noel's sharp edged wire predator guard and is VERY similar to the PVC predator guard that Don Hutchings uses in East Texas and both are shown in The Bluebird Monitor's Guide. This shows that predator guards were common and being used 90 years ago. Figure #6 shows a sunflower plant, something any child can plant for the birds! Figure #7 Is something that evidently did not catch on! It is a wood box attached to a tree limb and filled with sand for the birds to dust themselves in! ... The only three birds with their very own article in this supplement are the Meadow Lark, Grackle and the Bluebird. Ohio's game laws protected some, maybe most of the birds at this time. Quoted from part of the bird protection part follows: "No part of the plumage, skin, or body of any bird protected by this section ((they specifically named 43 birds kk)) shall be sold or had in possession for sale. No person shall at any time disturb, or destroy the eggs, or nests, or young, of any of the birds named in this section. Provided, that nothing in this section shall prohibit the killing of the chicken hawk, blue-hawk, crow, great horned owl, or the English sparrow, at any time, except on the first day of the week known as Sunday, by anybody, or destroying of their nests." This gave the residents of the state free hand to kill nearly every large hawk and owl they found on any day except Sunday. In 1911 they were teaching these students what birds to shoot or destroy! The first Arbor day in Ohio was in 1882 and in Cincinnati all 17,000 students were given two whole days off from school to help professional foresters plant trees in and around the city. By 1911 it was hoped that on Arbor Day nationally in FORTY states that 250,000 acres of trees would be planted or about 6,000 acres of trees per state or 6 million trees per state. The governor berated the Ohio teachers in this supplement because after 30 years of Arbor Days that few school yards had a SINGLE tree that had survived or even been planted! Most of the photos showed Ohio children planting trees in open plains and tree less city lots that could have been in Kansas! ... Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas From: Gary Springer, springer"at"alltel.net Keith wrote: "........ I found it interesting that the very FIRST nestbox pictured in the supplement(1911) is a two entrance holed nestbox hanging from a tree limb. Looks a LOT like the nestboxes Linda Violett's grand dad would have been using:-)))........." The first memories of nestboxes were of those my grandfather put up. Even though the house my grandparents lived in decades ago had burnt to the ground about ten years ago, I began to wonder if any of his nestboxes might still be on the property. Three years ago I took a road trip to the site of the former house and to my pleasant surprise, one of his nestboxes was still attached to the top of a metal pole along the fence line at the back of the property. Though it was entangled in honeysuckle and at least 30 years old, it was in excellent condition and had long outlasted its builder. The reason it lasted so long is that it had an excellently constructed metal roof, and, it was bolted onto the top of a metal pole from inside the nestbox. Given the quality of the neighborhood at present, I feel quite certain others had tried to remove it but had failed. I had to strike the bottom of the box with the palm of my hand dozens of times before finally splitting the wood and freeing the box from the pole. Both my mother's and father's side of the family were accused of over engineering everything and the way that nestbox was built and mounted is further proof of the merit of the accusation.. Anyway, the reason I now write about that nest box is that it two was a vintage two hole nestbox. This gable roof nestbox with a pentagonal front also sported a two by two inch glass window in the back to make observing the nesting birds easier and a heavy eyebolt below one of the entrance holes to be used as a perch. I feel quite certain the box was intended for house wrens which my grandfather deployed to control insects in his gardens. But, the holes had been enlarged, apparently by a small woodpecker, and it was subsequently used by house sparrows, probably for decades. It was filled from top to bottom with the compacted residue left by nesting birds. In this solid dirt-like mix were straw, feathers, bits of cellophane and several unhatched house sparrow eggs at various depths. That two hole nestbox has now been taken out of service for house sparrows and placed in the Old Growth Forests, Inc. birdhouse collection which also has an original Joe Huber "Flip Flop" box, an original "Huber Sparrow Trap", meticulously constructed box number 53 from Harry Krueger's bluebird trail, a Jack Finch "Homes for Bluebird's" box, a Keith Kridler log box, the Chalet returned by Steve Eno after his approval, a Bob Wilson double walled PVC box and others. ...Gary Springer From: Keith & Sandy Kridler, txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net Christy mentioned that they fledged 59 last year in an area of Florida that they did not even think they had bluebirds. Once you get a breeding population of bluebirds and you have unlimited good habitat then with enough nestboxes scattered over the area then it is common to be able to quadruple the numbers of young birds fledged annually if you keep adding more monitors and more nestboxes. So they should be able to fledge about 260 bluebirds this year if weather remains good and predators can be kept from the nestboxes. If your trail fledged 15 bluebirds last year then within two miles, you or your neighbors should add another 15 nestboxes:-))) Add one nestbox to every cemetery in your county, if you get native cavity nesters then add another box at the other end of the cemetery. You should always have up about 25% of your boxes that are empty and ready for a bird to move in no matter how many nestboxes you have in an area. Cheap nestboxes: Ask your local high school if they have a wood/shop class. Mt. Pleasant boys built 39 nestboxes last week and I donated another load of lumber to them yesterday. Builders and lumber yards often will donate scrap or even good lumber for school projects. Cavity nester programs given to fifth grade science classes will let you know if they have good habitat and then the young students with correct habitat can monitor the boxes built by Master Gardeners or Master Naturalists or high school boys this coming summer. Boy Scouts can earn badges and awards for wood working and bird conservation. Buy and loan out some of the tapes or DVD's to groups in your area, loan them to that neighbor next door you don't know yet! Bluebird Math in an eggshell! Information/education + nestboxes = cavity nesters. Information/education + nestboxes + monitoring = more cavity nesters Information/education + nestboxes + monitoring - non native competitors - predators = the most native cavity nesters These birds are basically very simple creatures with very simple needs we tend to forget that they survived for millions of years raising their young in any cavity they could find. Keep to simple math on a grand scale and you will fill the sky with blue "ribbons." KK From: Nancy C. Hebb, Fencroft"at"msn.com No, you are not crazy. We have learned that the young come back to the place they were born to nest. I am fortunate that there are many natural nesting cavities all around me. Show your nay-sayers the information!! I think I told this before that at the end of 2003 nesting season, I could see them lined up on the power lines of Cooper Road for 3 1/2 miles and I am the only one with a trail in my community other than 2 other boxes. Six years ago, you could not see Bluebirds there on the power lines. I know I am making a difference. What a sight to see!! Evelyn Cooper
I've been through this litany before, but for the newbies I'll repeat it in essence and in brief. I monitor 72 Bluebird houses at present. All are paired, all are on other people's property, all are on 7' steel poles, all are NABS-type and made of 7/8"white pine, and all are side-opening. Every year every pair of houses has one Tree Swallow nesting and one only. The remaining 36 houses produce, depending on the weather, between 12 and 21 Bluebird nestings, about half of which have 2nd nestings. I would never, ever expect to get 72 Bluebird nestings, since half my houses are taken by Tree Swallows and INTENDED for them.. I would be ASTONISHED if I ever got 36, or even 26, though I always hope. A few of my houses are always left vacant. I get a scattering of House Wrens, and luckily NO House Sparrows. "Failed" houses are my own fault in every case, because of poor location, mostly. So don't be dismayed, Nancy, if you don't get 100% occupancy. In my experience it's unheard-of. Just be thankful and happy with the successes you have, and keep putting up all the houses you can find good locations for. Bruce Burdett, SW NH From: Nancy C. Hebb, Fencroft"at"msn.com From: Snoopy, snoopy"at"wmis.net From: ke4fej1"at"email.msn.com Hi All, Gee, 100% occupancy! What a thought....sounds like a fantastic Goal! Remember when I started we had not seen one around here. By the end of the season I believe we had close to 190 boxes up. But through the 2003 season we started with 99, and then only 27 boxes were used. .. 59 fledged 117 total eggs/babies Who would have thought? I sure didn't but I have gone fishing many a place the fish were not or should not be,,,but I still went.....ya just never know what you get unless you try. When I saw that first BB on my back line, I figured if there is one, there could be more, and maybe I can help. Keith I think you are right on with numbers.... or the word is out to the BBs about our new neighborhoods of BB boxes. Last year we started our Official Monitor Checking March 15....with those 99 boxes.... We are really on the move right now and so are the BBs.... I will post on the 15th just one year later what we are starting with..... to me it is unreal...but it is happening!!!! Never bothered me to even think that boxes were not going to be used... I was used to the idea that NONE of them were going to be used. With my Monitors that never see BBs or had a nesting, I tell them Keith's story of the man who checked for 20 years until he got a BB. So the Monitors know what they might be up against. Luckily things are not that bad. It is like Christmas every day here now... stay tuned...don't feel bad you don't have BBs yet... remember being first to get them...we are also first to stop breeding too.... Think Bluebird! Christy Sarasota, FL From: PTom, ptom"at"austin.rr.com Christy wrote, "With my Monitors that never see BBs or had a nesting, I tell them Keith's story of the man who checked for 20 years until he got a BB. So the Monitors know what they might be up against." I'm sure I remember when that man posted on Bluebird-L ... probably five years ago. It was a nestbox in his front yard. Does anyone remember who it was or have a copy of the post? I use that story, too, and I'd like to know who it was and the fine details. Pauline Tom Mountain City (no mountains) TX From: Keith Kridler ...When NABS annual convention was in Montreal I was introduced to a man who had maintained over 500 nestboxes that fledged thousands of swallows and other native cavity nesters and after 10 years he had his first pair of Eastern Bluebirds nest. His trail was located more than 150 miles north of Montreal. Bluebird numbers increasing four fold a year: In East Texas in the mid to late 1970's our bluebird trail fledge numbers grew at 400% annual rate with nestboxes being increased at about 80% annually. The Montana group started with a handful of bluebird fledglings during the early years and then with good nestboxes and good monitors their numbers exploded. Severe weather in northern states is devastating to nesting birds some years so they cannot sustain this growth. I believe they had pulled the known nesting spots of the Eastern bluebird more than 800 miles from the eastern part of their state into the central part of the state in just a decade. Nebraska bluebird growth is unbelievable considering historically they had almost NO TREES in the state and their national forest was all planted not "natural". Modern nestbox trails now have to deal with probably 10 times the numbers of nestbox raiding hawks, magpies, jays, crows and owls. It seems like every state is dealing with farms being cut up and the frontage sold off for 1>3 acre homesites with each having a couple of cats and dogs...Fur trapping is non-existent today in most states and four legged predator numbers are exploding with only cars to limit their numbers. In the early 1980's to late 1980's Harry Krueger's fledge numbers near Ore City, Texas grew at about this same 400% annual rate to the point with his adult bluebird fidelity to nest site/fidelity to mate; banding study that his 60 nestboxes would have 58 or 59 nestboxes being used at the same time exclusively by bluebirds. Harry Krueger started with one nesting pair in his back yard and quickly went to nearly 75 pairs using 60 nestboxes during a 7 month long breeding season. 15>20% of his adult bluebird banded pairs SUCCESSFULLY fledged four broods in 7 months. His adult recaptured bluebirds were on average about twice the age of most northern adult bluebirds being recaptured and their band numbers checked across the northeastern states up to this time. (migrating birds face more losses traveling thousands of miles) All his nestboxes were on smooth metal pipe, all poles were greased monthly with 9 parts axle grease thinned with one part turpentine, all poles had mesh snake traps installed and whenever cats were seen along his trail the boxes were raised on telescoping poles to 10 feet. All his boxes had a wood front that measured 1&3/4" thick. He eradicated fire ants 12 months out of the year. He checked his active nestboxes EVERYDAY until they fledged. He averaged fledging 1.5 more young per nest attempt annually than I did on my trail with nestboxes mounted to wood power poles. He exterminated House Sparrows in winter and early spring. Trappers removed coons and other furred predators each winter in his area. He live trapped stray cats constantly and drove his trail at all hours of the night at least once a week to watch for predators. Just before his death, three years in a row he averaged fledging more than 9 bluebirds per nestbox from 60 nestboxes. Most of the experienced bluebirders on this list read every week accounts from people that we know are going to lead to disaster for some of these nesting birds. The more you learn and then the more money you are willing to invest in each nestbox/pole and the better your local habitat and more intense your monitoring will all lead to a quicker increase in bluebird numbers in an area. Mother nature and disease ultimately determine the number of bluebirds allowed per square mile to survive. Winter survival of these birds is critical because each pair lost from August to February is actually a loss of about 9 unborn bluebirds! Lack of good nestboxes forces them to inspect every plumbing vent pipe and chimney in the area. It forces them to fight squirrels, chipmunks and House Sparrows for scarce nestsites. Urban sprawl, changes in farm land use and the amount and kinds of chemicals used by small landowners all affect the local bluebird population. The amount and species of timber being removed in your area affect the numbers of bluebirds that will survive this coming winter over the entire region. All this has a direct impact on numbers of bluebirds you will see returning this spring but more importantly how many your grand children will see 25 years from now. KK From: Keith & Sandy Kridler, txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net Harry Krueger's data is in old issues of the "BLUEBIRD NEWS" which was published monthly from 1988 till late 1993 You will find his writings also in Sialia. My old data was published in Nature Society News starting about 1975 and in each issue of "BLUEBIRD NEWS". Harry was a Master Bird Bander and wrote the bluebird column for Nature Society News for about 3 years. Some of his technical findings on his bluebird banding study were published in North American Bird Bander, Sialia, Journal of Field Ornithology and other birding periodicals. When bluebirds are only one of HUNDREDS of other bird species that need more study and research and articles printed on them then you will find that very little "bluebird trail" data is ever or will ever be included in any major periodical. The real test of fledgling numbers is to look at historical CBC counts and Breeding bird survey counts for a region. Numbers from one little trail really don't mean much but if you influence the entire region on installing nestboxes correctly AND install a LOT of boxes then it begins to show up in these national counts. You will notice that Northeast Texas has consistently posted some of the highest Eastern Bluebird numbers since the 1970's. Nashville Tenn. is another hot spot because Laskey had trails near there for about 30 years. W.G. Duncan in his part of Kentucky, Larry Zeleny in Maryland, Jack Finch in North Carolina all show up because of long term education of the public and there are many other groups whose influence in a region saved and created the higher bluebird populations in a region that modern day bluebirders have to build boxes for now. You have to realize that we are building on the backs of early bluebirders that communicated with handwritten letters! We all had real jobs and we all had real families and bluebirds were only another interest that we somehow made time for in our lives. Dr. W.G. Duncan revolutionized bluebirding in the 1970's by personally compiling a few letters a couple of times a year into a sort of a Nature/ecology/bluebird newsletter and having a lady make copies on a "state of the art" Xerox office copy machine when they came down in price to where he could afford it! He continued into the late 1970's and at one time was personally funding/sending out 1,800 of these per issue a couple times a year with a real licked first class stamp on them. Has anyone ever seen even a single copy? Addresses on the newsletter were handwritten on most of them! He did this through saved contacts made while writing for the bluebird column for the "PURPLE MARTIN NEWS" now the "NATURE SOCIETY NEWS". Most of the trials and tribulations of the real bluebirding pioneers is lost forever now as very little in the way of paper records had been recorded on something you can easily retrieve. I was avidly reading the "PURPLE MARTIN NEWS" when Larry Zeleny wrote monthly for them and I doubt very many of his articles are still out there now. We tend to think if you cannot pull up the information in seconds on Yahoo that it does not exist but there are a LOT of bluebirders looking down on us and laughing when we invent something or write about something as NEW and ASTOUNDING that they were doing 70 years ago. Time spent compiling more data does not fledge bluebirds but people building more nestboxes does. KK From: mrtony8 [mailto:mrtony8"at"cox.net] Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2005 9:11 AM Subject: CBC Bluebirds in Florida An interesting graph depicts the CBC numbers for EABL's in Florida may be seen at http://audubon2.org/birds/cbc/hr/graph.html We DO have an impact ! Surprising to me is the lack of birds in the early years of the last century, but I think the explanation is that the numbers of people counting birds were much fewer than today. Note during the depression years of the '30's, numbers are up, only to decline later. This may be because the government was into everything then, including counting birds, to keep the teenagers busy. CCC camps were in every state. Phil Berry Pensacola, Florida |
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