President's Report - Fall 2018
By Joseph Michielsen
Migration in fall 2017 and spring 2018 was very rough on the mountain bluebird population. Fall and winter roared in last fall with an early snowstorm and continued with very few breaks. Then winter continued until ate April while the bluebirds were returning and looking for both food and nesting sites.
I have not completed the monitor data spreadsheet but reports from the monitors indicate generally fewer nests and a late start. The number of second broods seems to be lower and difficult to determine because it was hard to determine if the nest was indeed a first or second brood.
Our Trail Master, Steven, has been very busy finding our Mountain Bluebird Trails (MBT) nest boxes. He has located more than 2,500 of our boxes and in many cases determined who monitors or used to monitor or maintain them.
Steven not only located the boxes but repaired many of them including installing the metal shield and the drop bottom on those that didn’t have them. I have asked him and director Ken Mackintosh to track the monitors of all our 500 ‘new’ boxes to ensure we aren’t losing track of the boxes as we locate older ones.
Our boxes that were purchased with funding through the Lethbridge and area Community Foundation are numbered using the year they were built and then dash 1-500. While on his quests to find boxes, Steven has also brought on board many new monitors and members to maintain the boxes.
Kudos, Steven, on your relentless efforts. Ken Mackintosh reports that we still have a number of boxes available to members if they want to set up more on their trails or replace aging or worn out boxes. Steven was able to promote the MBT organization at several events in southern Alberta this year, which helped increase both our membership and people maintaining boxes. Jim Leitch led a spring orientation but few people attended. We need to find new ways to promote this.
We were very fortunate to be the recipient of a few donations this year. We wish to thank ATCO Gas and a number of persons who contributed so we can continue to help Mountain Bluebirds. A few persons contributed anonymously through Canada Helps but we also wish to thank Patrick Williams, Marj Donais and family, John and Ann Brownles, and the Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club for their donations in memory of William Slemko, who recently passed away in Calgary. Our 2018 Annual General Meeting will be held Saturday, Nov. 3 at the Helen Schuler Nature Center from 2 to 4 p.m.. Everyone is welcome to attend. Besides discussion on stuff that happened through the past year, we have Dr. Andrew Iwaniuk from the University of Lethbridge speaking on his Ruffed Grouse research.
We are looking for members interested in holding position on our executive. Please consider taking on one of the jobs. The positions are not onerous but to operate as a non-profit organization they do need to be filled. I will be stepping down as president. Steven has generously agreed to let his name stand for another year as Trail Master but we need someone for Vice President.