Bluebirds are secondary cavity nesters, most often using holes made by woodpeckers. When dead trees with cavities are not available, they readily accept nestboxes. Providing and maintaining nestboxes increases their local numbers and helps in their conservation. Nestboxes may also have an advantage over other natural cavities in decreasing predators due to the specific size of entrance hole or slot and other accommodations that can be made. There are 4 Bluebird nestbox trails in the Castlegar area and others in the WKNA catch area, for instance in Rossland. The trails are being maintained and monitored by WKNA members. Maintenance includes repairing and ensuring the structural integrity of the boxes and cleaning out the old nests and debris after the nesting season / before the birds arrive in early spring. Monitoring involves more frequent checks on the progress of the nesting birds and young. Gratitude to Sarah Currie who managed a lot of these trails for the last 8 years. Sarah retired from this work this year, which marked a re-connection to the Southern Interior Bluebird Trail Society SIBTS, with our member Susan Spiller from Rossland taking out a membership for our club. This allows more detailed information such as number of young of which species hatched and /or fledged, to be collected and submitted at the end of the season. This info is sent to the British Columbia Nest Record Scheme, operating out of the Biodiversity Center for Wildlife Studies in Victoria. Membership in SIBTS includes “The Nestbox”, an informative newsletter sent to all our members via email. Websites to check out for more information on bluebirds are https://www.bcbluebirds.org and http://www.sialis.org/monitoring.htm Although WKNA's focus is on bluebirds, of course other cavity nesters use the boxes. This past summer we had Mountain and Western Bluebirds, Tree swallows, Black-capped Chickadees, and even flying squirrels. There was successful nesting and fledging of young from 7 Mountain Bluebird pairs, 3 Tree Swallow pairs, plus some Western Bluebirds and Black capped Chickadees. An eventful season. WKNA would appreciate volunteers to monitor one of the trails starting next spring. Two people working together could be the best since this beautiful area is a bit more remote with a rough access road. It can certainly be an enriching experience. If you are interested in this opportunity, or for more information, please contact Paula Neilson, [email protected]. - Paula Neilson and Susan Spiller, West Kootenay Naturalists
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West Kootenay Naturalists' AssociationTo know nature and keep it worth knowing. Archives
June 2023
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