Wild River Audubon member Gloria Peterson has monitored bluebird trails in Chisago County for 17 years. She recently dropped by for an interview, dressed for the occasion in a peach colored t-shirt sporting a bluebird pair. We took the opportunity to ask questions.
Q: When did you begin monitoring the bluebirds at Wild River State Park?
A: I began monitoring elsewhere before I started there. In 2003, I started monitoring a stretch [of bluebird houses] that started south of North Branch and ended a little bit south of Rush City, about thirteen stops I had to make on the freeway…pretty dangerous, really. I did it for four years. I volunteered because I thought it would be interesting and because someone asked me to, which was easier than stepping up and saying, “I’ll do it!”
The trail was set up by the Bluebird Recovery Program, a project originating with the Audubon Chapter of Minneapolis, and now its own entity, https://bbrp.org
Q: Describe your trail: how many houses, location in the park, and what exactly do you do when you come up to a house?
A: There are three locations. Every time I monitor, I drive to three different spots. The first one is the campground. I park at the campground and walk west –four pairs of houses. Then I drive down to Amik’s Pond and check two pairs of houses. And then I drive to the trail center and walk a loop that takes me over an hour that ends up between the manager’s house and the office. I walk three and a half miles every time I do this.
Q: What do you do when you get to each bluebird house?
A: The houses are paired, two houses in each location. They are about ten to fifteen feet apart. The reason for that is that tree swallows want to use them, and supposedly will not take both houses. That leaves one for the bluebirds. In truth, the bluebirds usually get there first, but it does work out well. Frequently there are bluebirds in one and tree swallows in the other. So I actually open every house when I get to them. I write down what’s in it, whether it’s eggs, how many babies, or if they’ve fledged.
Q: You have a data sheet that you got from the Bluebird Recovery Program?
A: I just use little notebooks. I create my own data sheets. I write down what’s in the house, if there is a different species, or if something happened to it, if a predator got into it.
Q: If there are remains like feathers?
A: yeah… Sometimes you can tell what happened. If a wren gets in there, it pokes holes in the eggs and throws them out, so I find the eggs on the ground below the box, with holes in them. One time when I found the bluebird box laying on the ground with a whole corner of it chewed off, I knew that was a bear.
Q: Talk about the current status of the boxes this summer, as of June 18th. What did you find today?
A: As of today, this year out of 19 potential nest sites (19 pairs of houses), 17 of them have had bluebirds nest in them. I’ve had 118 eggs. 81 of them have hatched, and 47 of those have fledged. Seven of the birds whose babies have fledged have started a second nest. Have laid eggs in a second nest, not just built a nest but are going with it.
Q: Is that early? For a second nest?
A: The very first nesting this year was possibly the earliest I’ve seen. I was a little bit concerned because I wasn’t sure there would be any food for the babies. There were three eggs. But they did succeed. We’ve had some years when we get cold, wet weather in May, and sometimes there’s a whole nest of babies that will die because of that. This [year’s early nesting] was April 17.
That bird is in the second nesting and has five babies in its second nest right now. Last year, very few of them nested a second time, like only one or two and I don’t know why, and my total fledglings last year was 73, which is pretty low. I’ve had as high as 136.
Q: Wow. That’s just kind of astounding, from that small area in the park.
What changes, if any, have you seen in Chisago County’s bluebird population since you began monitoring your trail?
A: I wasn’t really seeing bluebirds before I started monitoring the trail. I wasn’t mindful of looking for bluebirds, but now I see a lot on the wires.
Q: So you’re seeing more birds, but it might just be because you’re more aware of them. Do you have any good stories?
A: Last year I had a nest that had tree swallow AND bluebird eggs in it. I was curious about what was going to happen. One time when I checked it, there was a tree swallow sitting on the eggs and I really wanted to look [under her]. I reached in and picked up the tree swallow, looked at the eggs, and set her back down and she did not flush.
Q: This is my last question: have you detected the effects of climate change on the birds in Chisago County, like more hot summer days…I don’t know. It sounds like they’re flourishing.
A: We’re discovering that they like the heat more than the cold. When we first made bluebird houses, we’d drill holes in for ventilation. Then, they put little doors on those ventilations holes so you could close them up, and I learned recently that we should just cover up the ventilation holes, that they actually prefer the heat. I have found that when I lose baby birds due to weather, it seems to be more that cold bothers them than heat.
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