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.

Thank you again to all our monitors who faithfully monitored their boxes and reported their activity. The ability to monitor boxes was a bright spot during this time as this was an activity where we could be outside enjoying nature and still accomplish the task of monitoring, in the ongoing support of the mountain bluebird.

This was, as best as we can tell, a good if not an above average year for bluebird fledglings. They seemed to arrive early and went to work raising their families and in some cases two broods.

I hosted our annual Orientation Day on June 6 this year. It was a lovely spring morning with eight people from Lethbridge and surrounding area eagerly participating and becoming acquainted with the nesting life cycle of the mountain bluebird.

We also got the opportunity to observe other bird species as well as a resident prairie rattlesnake. We felt fortunate we managed to still have this orientation day, when most other in-person events and activities were cancelled. We achieved this by being outdoors and adhering to the physical distancing guidelines. We even had half the participants desiring to investigate having their own trail. It ended up a great day!

As most of you know, we are a non-profit charitable society that survives on the generous gifts from individuals and organizations like you. We were very excited as an executive when we were notified that we would be receiving a gift of $5,000 from the Irene Matilda Clarke estate. This gift will go a long way to assist us in buying more supplies to build more bluebird boxes, as our current supply of boxes is essentially depleted. If you have an interest in building boxes and/or a facility that we could use for this activity, please contact us.

Thank you again to Steven Shumborski, our hard working Trail Master, for recording, building, renovating and restoring the many bluebird boxes on those trails in southern Alberta that have been abandoned or on existing and new trails that require support. Thanks also to Curtis Goodman, our new Webmaster who has done a masterful job in upgrading and improving our website. If you haven't had a chance to view the new website go to bluebirdtrails.org.

As an executive we felt that, in light of the current pandemic restrictions, we would opt to delay our Annual General Meeting until the spring. We will keep you posted as to what format that may take. We would like to thank everyone connected to our Mountain Bluebird Trails Conservation Society for all of your efforts during these most challenging times. We could not have achieved what was achieved without you.

Be strong and carry-on!

- Jim Leitch, MBTCS President