News and Muse from the Bluebird Trail

By Shayne Mitchell

Trail Monitoring Report

​All nest boxes were inspected and cleaned out in late August after nesting ended.  This was repeated in late February.  A few boxes required repairs--mainly the roofs, which bear the brunt of the weather. The February checks also confirmed that overwintering birds were roosting in many of the boxes.

Last fall Fred and I reviewed the 2024 nest box results to see who was nesting where.  We found that some box locations that didn’t host bluebirds were being encroached upon by brush and trees.  The bluebird trail was created about 25 years ago, so it is no surprise that this would happen. While this isn’t necessarily a deal breaker for bluebirds, these now brushy locations become attractive to house wrens.  Wrens can be very aggressive and may outcompete bluebirds for a favored box location.  The National Audubon Society estimates that the population of house wrens is 4.5 times greater than the combined populations of Eastern bluebirds and tree swallows, so we’d prefer that these latter two species use our nest boxes.  With that in mind, some areas were brush hogged last fall where that was feasible and desirable.  Also, several boxes were moved to locations that are more open. In addition, we expanded the Bluebird Trail by adding four new boxes to the field next to the Waterfall Trail parking lot. This increases our nest box total to 44.

​Routine monitoring will begin during March.  Last year was a record year at the Arboretum for bluebirds.  Hopefully, our Bluebird Trail will do as well this year.  Much depends on the weather. 

Classes/Field Trips

There are many bird-related classes and field trips scheduled for 2025.  These include Setting Up a Bluebird Nest Box, Annual Spring Hawk Watch & Hawk Identification Workshop, three Bluebird Trail Walks, Sounds of Spring Nature Walk, Morning Bird Walk, Early Birding - A Birding Workshop For Kids, Sunrise Celebration Nature Walk, Bird Feeder Making Workshop, the Second Annual Landis Big Sit Bird Watch, and the Annual Halloween Owl Prowl.  These events start in early March and go through late October. Visit our Upcoming Events webpage to see details and to sign up.  If there are other classes or field trips you’d like to see, please email us your ideas.  

2025 Bluebird Lottery

2024’s Bluebird Lottery was a success with good participation and winners receiving lots of free prizes. So, we are repeating the lottery again this year.  Find information about last year’s lottery in 2024 editions of the Bluebird Blog.  Please visit our Upcoming Events webpage to learn how to participate in the 2025 lottery.

For more birding news, click here to access the Bluebird News and Muse blog.


Spring 2025

Volume 43 , Number 1

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