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. There was a concern in some parts of the province that the bluebirds were late in arriving but thankfully I did get a report that they did finally arrive. We seem to have managed to avoid the cold spring rains which can prove deadly for young nestlings.

Here in southern Alberta our preliminary annual stats indicate that we had an average year for new bluebird fledglings, with the warm summer helping to bring the numbers up. If you haven't had a chance to complete and send your annual stats report summary to Joe Michielsen please do so as soon as you can at joe.michielsen@hotmail.com. These reports assist us and the Alberta Government with analyzing bluebird population patterns.

We wouldn't be a society without our committed volunteers on our executive board who keep the society going and thriving. A special thank you again to Steven Shumborski. our Trail Master, who works tirelessly to track down abandoned trails and then restores and replaces boxes as required, at the same time as finding a committed Trail Monitor for each of these new trails. Steven as well as connected with various interested stakeholders from schools to community groups to support them in creating their own boxes and trails.

As most of you know we have a second to none website for our society. The redevelopment and maintenance of our site is due to the efforts of Curtis Goodman, our Webmaster. If you haven't visited the site I would encourage you to do so at BluebirdTrails.org. Curtis has also worked hard to give us a much broader media exposure, as a society, here in southern Alberta, which we are grateful for. Thank you Curtis.

Thank you to all the other volunteers who sit on our board, to our treasurer, secretary and other directors. You are appreciated.

I hosted once again my annual spring Trail Orientation Day on June 4. We had 12 excited participants come out for this half day event at my trail on the westside of Lethbridge. We had the opportunity to see the mountain bluebird in various stages of development, from eggs to young nestlings as well as some other bird species of interest. The weather cooperated and we had a great day on the trail.

If you have a need for boxes for your trail please contact Ken Mackintosh at 403 345-5806.

We have again decided as a board to defer our annual AGM from this fall, to the spring of 2023. We are feeling that this may be more of an appropriate time to have an AGM as we jump start a new season.

A big thank you to all our Trail Monitors, who have committed themselves to maintaining and monitoring their trails to ensure that the mountain bluebird is with us to enjoy for years to come.