Transfer of Bluebird Trails

By Steven Shumborski
Trail Master

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.

When you give your trail to a friend or someone you know, the communication connection with MBT is broken. There is no monitor agreement signed, there is no commitment to MBT to look after the boxes and report annually, or let someone at MBT know when you are no longer able to look after the nestbox trail.

So, when you are retiring from nestbox monitoring, let the President or Trailmaster know so they can arrange for an orderly transfer from the retiree to another person who is committed to looking after the trail.

When there is a change in monitor, I like to check the condition of the boxes and remove any fixed floor boxes for renovation. I also check the spacing of the boxes and relocate any that are no longer in suitable bluebird habitat. For example, the pasture surrounding the box may have been converted into a grain field.

Knowing the location of the boxes is essential to let the new monitor know the location and number of nest boxes on their trail.