OPTIMISM – Ten Bucks and Change
It’s hard to come by these days, isn’t it? Action, you already know, is the most effective antidote for existential gloom. Psychologists are right when they say helping others is the best medicine. I’m now belatedly but determinedly engaged in creating more ecological islands in my ragged lawn: naturalized areas around trees (rhizome farming), a wildflower meadow in a sunny area. More on that journey later this year.
One task I have done for 17 years that has thrilled me and given me hope is the building of bluebird boxes for my yard. They’ve been successful more than a dozen times, some seasons good for two broods. Yes, I’m a proud Grandpa. Maybe by now a great great Grandpa. Winter is a good time for construction, or this year, reconstruction.
There are still many people who have never seen a bluebird or heard that gentle, cheerful song. Bluebirds have been in danger from invasive starlings and house sparrows, as well as from loss of nesting sites and habitat, since I was a kid listening to Mantle and Maris on my AM radio. Beginning in the Seventies, a nationwide trail of homemade boxes genuinely saved the species. No government intervention. We did that, us ordinary folks, just as we’ve begun to do for Monarch butterflies.
Pat Miller photos
Bluebirds cannot drill their own nesting holes; their beaks aren’t made for it. They are dependent on other species (mostly woodpeckers, of course) to create nesting sites. Their population has fluctuated with the abundance of open areas, meadows, fields, and farms, from the pre-Columbian burning of underbrush to the twentieth century reforestation of Connecticut. Our current thickly wooded landscape is not ideal for the species. Generous open suburban/rural lots with woodland edges may be the most common habitat now for bluebirds. This means you’re up!
https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Wildlife/Fact-Sheets/Eastern-Bluebird Box plans and information are complements of the CT DEEP. Yes, a six-foot pine 1X6 costs only a sawbuck. And Elmer’s Glue and nails still work. I skip the flip-up front or side idea and use a waterproof screw with a washer to hold the top to the front and remove the top for cleaning. Wing nuts holding the back to the post make the box easy to take off and shake out. I leave the back piece as long as possible to match my stainless-steel carriage bolts to the predrilled holes in a metal post. I make a wood predator guard for my boxes every time. Touch base if you have questions, or want to borrow a one-and-a-half-inch hole saw. I’m optimistic(!) you’ll raise some bluebirds.
Happy New Year! George Jacobi