MBTCS News & Updates
President’s Spring Report
Spring has arrived, I think, but we certainly can't draw that conclusion if we use the weather as the determining factor. We know spring has arrived for sure when we hear about early sightings of the beautiful mountain bluebird. Some of those early sightings were in mid to late March this year. Most of our feathered friends arrive to begin their nesting process in April and early May.
MBTCS newsletter: your gateway to Bluebird conservation in Southern Alberta
Don’t miss out on the chance to be part of a meaningful movement dedicated to preserving the enchanting spectacle of bluebirds in Southern Alberta. Join us in making a lasting impact on our local environment!
Don Stiles: ‘Mr. Bluebird’ did much for birds, conservation
Don Stiles of Calgary was an avid bluebird enthusiast and has helped our organization by providing advice and contact information on many occasions. Don passed away on Oct. 11 and we mourn his loss. In sharing his obituary, we honour his legacy and hope to highlight his conservation work for Bluebirds.
Trail Monitor Stories: The headless swallow by Jim Leitch
Last year, one of the pleasant surprises on my trail was having a few families of Violet-green Swallows occupy some of my boxes for the first time ever. It was beautiful to see their flashes of turquoise green on white with a distinct purple rump. They are similar to the tree swallow.
Trail Monitor Stories: Kathy Koenig
One of the great things about being a Trail Monitor is the vast opportunity it provides to get outdoors, enjoy the fresh air, scenery and glimpses of other birds and other wildlife. In this new and hopefully long-term feature, we’ve asked monitors to share some of their experiences and photographs from their year of trail work. Featured on this post are photos and narrative from MBTCS Treasurer Kathy Koenig:
Bluebird? Tanager? Galapagos sightings
Long-time MBTCS member and director Joe Michielsen visited Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands earlier this year. Always with an eye on birds and other wildlife, he spotted a bird that at first glance could have been a bluebird…
President’s Fall Report
As I pen this report for the 2022 season, I can't help but be surprised at the pleasant warm fall season we are experiencing. It seems like a repeat of last fall. Like last year as well this past season we saw some pretty extreme weather. A late arriving spring followed by an extended very hot summer.
Transfer of Bluebird Trails
Talking your friends into looking after a trail you are no longer able to look after leads to disaster. I regularly encounter this experience and an abandoned trail is often the result.
President’s Spring Report
Spring is finally in the air with the return of the stunning mountain bluebird. We had an early sighting from one of our local members here in Lethbridge on April 2 at the Popson Park picnic shelter. There were also other sightings in other parts of the province as early as mid-March.
A new group of monitors
When teacher Derek Shackleford wanted to discover how his class could help mountain bluebird conservation, he contacted our Trail Master, Steven Shumborski to get the facts. As a result, the class assembled 10 nest boxes from MBTCS supplied parts, and installed them near the school grounds. The nest boxes will be regularly monitored and students will hopefully have the opportunity to see bluebirds, eggs, nestlings and fledglings.
President’s Fall Report
This has been an extraordinary year for unpredictable weather, with unprecedented heat this past summer. These extreme weather patterns have also taken a toll on the mountain bluebird population. Numbers of returning bluebirds this past spring to nest were down from previous years and in some areas the birds were late in arriving.
Trail Master’s Spring Report
Our society has approximately 2,660 nest boxes with more added as nest box trails are identified and added to the inventory. There are 103 trail monitors on record! Trail sizes are being reduced to 20 or 30 boxes each so more people can be involved.
President’s Spring Report
Spring is here and the bluebirds have returned. We are looking forward to another year of monitoring the trails! There were early sightings this year in the foothills in mid-March. Spring is a wonderful time of year as it brings brings us hope for the future and the anticipation of new things and a reminder of old familiar things.
Trail Master’s Fall Report
We have about 2,623 MBT nest boxes. There are 101 monitors on record. The number of monitors is slowly increasing as the size of trails is being decreased. When someone retires, the large trails are split into trails of 25 -35 nest boxes. The trail size has been decreased to 20 or 30 to make looking after the nest boxes more of an outing than a chore.
President’s Fall Report
As I reported in the spring newsletter this year, I find myself once again sitting in my backyard on a beautiful sunny fall afternoon and like then, I am distracted by the events that surround us. It has now been roughly seven months since the onslaught of this world-wide pandemic. Like everywhere, we as a bluebird society were not exempt from its impact, but I must say we made every effort to carry on and do the best we could.
Welcome to new interim Webmaster
The torch for the Mountain Bluebird Trails Conservation Society (MBTCS) is being passed! We welcome Curtis Goodman to the job. Over the past few years we have endeavoured to update our website and make it more interactive and useful to all the folks involved with and interested in bluebirds. I am pleased to tell you that we have found an excellent webmaster.
President's Report - Fall 2019
Well, another season has come and gone with a new crop of young Mountain bluebird fledglings heading south for the winter. In spite of a late and coolish start to the season, it would appear at this stage that this was a pretty typical year for bluebird nestlings and subsequent fledglings.
Observation on New Bluebird Trail Monitors Recruitment
Recruiting monitors is an ongoing requirement to maintain the trails and keep the nest boxes in usable condition for bluebird nesting. Proximity to the mountains, recreational areas and parks provides a draw, bringing people to the foothills for recreational activities. Monitoring a bluebird trail can be one of the activities that people and families engage in when they are in bluebird habitat.
President’s Report - Spring 2019
Greetings to all, and all the best this spring and summer. We are all looking forward to another year on the bluebird trail. As your new president, I would be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to acknowledge and thank our outgoing president, Joe Michielsen, for his hard work and dedication in his role as president of the Mountain Bluebird Trails Conservation Society.
About Parasites found in Mountain Bluebird Nest Boxes
The fly larvae that feed on the young bluebirds are common flies. I collected a number of the larvae and pupae from bluebird nest boxes this summer and put them in a jar. Then I left them for a couple weeks until the adults emerged from their cocoons, and what came out? Common flies, nothing special, just the everyday flies you see everywhere in fields and around cattle.