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Protecting the mountain bluebird

The following story was awarded Best Habitat Conservation Story by Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association for 2018. The award is sponsored by Ducks Unlimited Canada.
WKND Bluebirds
The brightly coloured male returns with a worm for his offspring.

The following story was awarded Best Habitat Conservation Story by Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association for 2018. The award is sponsored by Ducks Unlimited Canada. This story was originally published in the June 16, 2017 edition of the Okotoks Western Wheel Weekend.   A couple of bird-lovers have found a great way to get outdoors and help an endangered species during their retirement. Nancy and Duncan Rand, of Calgary, began caring for mountain bluebirds 30 years ago, when they lived in Lethbridge. They had 120 bird boxes to watch over in the south before they moved to Calgary and began caring for two new trails, northwest of Black Diamond, along Highway 22, and near Priddis, with a total of 80 boxes. “Back in the 1980s, they discovered the bluebirds and the tree swallows were losing their habitat because of barns coming down and trees being chopped down, so they were losing their cavity dwellings,” said Nancy Rand. “So, some people got together and made bluebird boxes and started a trail putting up bluebird boxes along the fence lines, and gradually the bluebirds came back.” She and her husband learned about it from an elderly man in Lethbridge, who mentored them when they decided to take up the cause. He went out and cared for the bluebirds until he was 90 years old, said Rand. At that point, it had become too difficult for him to navigate steep ditches and hills to access some of the boxes, she said. They brought what they learned from him to the Foothills, where they set up a new line and bluebird boxes they’ve been caring for since 2009. They’re associated with the Calgary Mountain Bluebird Trails Conservation Society, which monitors the migration patterns and population of the birds and submits data to the national database kept by Bird Studies Canada. Statistics show that with the help of people like the Rands, the bluebird population has been on the rise in recent years, she said. “The population is coming back,” said Rand. “They’re very beautiful, and they feed their young on mosquitoes and bugs, so it’s part of the ecological system and beneficial to us all.” Caring for the mountain bluebird is a year-long endeavour, she said. It begins in the fall, when the birds have vacated the boxes, and they need to be cleaned out for the winter. It allows them to discard old nests and rid the boxes of any bug infestations. They’re cleaned again after the winter, ahead of the bluebirds’ return. “We have to go around and clean the boxes again in case there’s mice in there, because mice like to take over for the winter,” said Rand. “That’s a hazard, so we clean out everything in the spring to be ready for the birds.” It all has to be done before April, when the males make their way back north from their winter migration to the southern states. The females usually follow about a month later, and there tends to be eggs in the nests by the end of May, she said. This year, due to heavy storms in the US, the birds were late to return to Canada, she said. Now the boxes are filled with nesting birds and their young, and the Rands are out on the trail to band and care for them, she said. “We start in about April to see if the birds are back and what’s going on, and then we find the eggs usually in May and then we band them when they’re 10 days old,” said Rand. Each band has a unique number inscribed on it to identify the birds. With their number reported to the bluebird society, they can be tracked for the remainder of their lives, she said. She said over the years she’s been able to identify some birds that have returned after having been south for a winter or two. By tracking their numbers, they can tell exactly where the birds are found from one end of the line to the other, she said. “That’s how they keep track of migration patterns,” said Rand. “When we recover them either dead or alive, they’re reported to Ottawa and we hear back.” Another tracking device, an electronic transmitter, can also be put on the birds. They are glued onto the feathers at the back of the birds’ necks and transmit signals that allow the birds to be followed throughout their entire migration, she said. The bluebirds don’t mind being tagged, she said. “Even when we go to band, we’re very careful and quick about it, because the birds are usually sitting there,” said Rand. “They can be sitting on the wire with the food in their mouth waiting to get in there and feed the babies. So we have to hurry, because they’re right there ready to go in, but they don’t mind us going in.” This year there are about 400 nestlings being banded in the mountain area, she said. The Rands typically band about 50 to 80 per year, sometimes as many as 120. There are 80 people in the Mountain Bluebird Trails Conservation Society all tending to about the same number of baby birds, she said. Though the numbers sound high, the mountain bluebird is still considered in danger because the species is fragile in its early stages, she said. “It takes quite a bit for those little ones to survive,” said Rand. One of the greatest threats to the baby mountain bluebirds are blow fly larvae. When the boxes become infested with blow flies, they will lay their larvae on the legs of the baby birds, which suck the blood from the birds’ legs, weakening them to the point where some don’t live. “I took five of them off one baby this time, one of the little nestlings had five of the things on its leg,” said Rand. “You pull it off so they can’t do any damage, but they still get so weak if you don’t check often enough. It’s so important to watch for these things.” The blow flies aren’t the only threat. Mountain bluebirds are also at risk from snakes, raccoons and sparrows that try to kill them, and wrens that try to take over their nests. “They have a hard time, the bluebirds, because they don’t fight,” said Rand. Caring for the birds through the spring and summer is something she and her husband don’t mind taking on. They enjoy getting fresh air and watching the birds in their natural habitat, knowing they’ve done something to help. “They’re beautiful,” said Rand. “All the songs that have been written about mountain bluebirds, you can see why when you see the colour. It’s a beautiful sight just to see them.”

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