Vol. 40 No. 3 Contents Summer Message to Our Affiliate Organizations - Kevin Corwin
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LUEBIRD BJOURNAL OF THE NORTH AMERICAN BLUEBIRD SOCIETY SUMMER 2018 VOL. 40 NO. 3 Contents Summer Message to Our Affiliate Organizations - Kevin Corwin ........................................................................................................ 1 Allan Hack / flickr.com From the President - Bernie Daniel ............................................................................................................................................................ 2 Leucistic Western Bluebird ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3 From the Managing Editor - Scott W. Gillihan ........................................................................................................................................... 4 NABS Notices: Annual Meeting ................................................................................................................................................................. 5 Letters to Bluebird ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 NABS Notices: Finances .............................................................................................................................................................................. 6 NABS Notices: Directors Election ........................................................................................................................................................... 7 The North American Bluebird Society Grants Program ................................................................................................................... 10 Instructions for NABS Research Grant Applications .......................................................................................................................... 11 Heavy Nestbox Installation Made Simple - Sky Rector ........................................................................................................................ 12 Snake vs. Snake ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 13 More Hypotheses for Empty-Nest Behavior in Wrens - Benjamin E. Leese ................................................................................... 14 Could Lightning Kill Nestlings in a Nestbox? - Susanne Maidment .................................................................................................. 17 Azure Bluebird Project Update - Kari Hackney .................................................................................................................................... 18 Photo Gallery .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 19 A First Bluebird Box Experience - Darrell Ashworth ............................................................................................................................ 20 Current Distribution and Population Trends for the Eastern Bluebird - Bernie Daniel ............................................................... 21 Bluebirds Everywhere ................................................................................................................................................................................ 28 AffiliatesAssigned to Each NABS Regional Representative .............................................................................................................. 29 Affiliates of the North American Bluebird Society ............................................................................................................................. 30 Cover illustration: Eastern Bluebird fledgling by Steve Byland, Bigstockphoto.com Table of Contents photo: Allan Hack caught this image of an American Kestrel taking advantage of what is probably a Barn Owl box to scout for his supper. This photo and others by Allan are at www.flickr.com/ photos/aehack Summer Message to Our Affiliate Organizations Kevin Corwin Hello Fellow Bluebirders! our Regional Representatives have been busy these Ypast few months, starting a dialog with each of you BLUEBIRD that we expect will improve our ability to provide you the Bluebird/Sialia (ISSN 0890-7021) is published kind of support that will, in turn, improve your ability to quarterly by North American Bluebird Society, do the things you do best—conserve bluebird populations Inc., P.O. Box 7844, Bloomington, IN 47407 throughout North America. Printed by Sutherland Companies We have had some difficulties making contact with a few Montezuma, IA of you, so if you have not yet heard from your Regional Rep, please don’t hesitate to contact him/her to open the Managing Editor: Scott Gillihan conversation. We have published the complete list of our [email protected] Reps’ names and email addresses, and the Affiliates they are working with, elsewhere in this edition of Bluebird. Subscription is included with membership in NABS. Write for information about bulk Please take a minute to check your Affiliate Listing on quantities. Make checks and money orders the last three pages of this edition to make sure we have payable to NABS in U.S. funds. everything correct. We keep finding transposed digits in telephone numbers, misspelled names, etc., and your quick Issues are dated Winter, Spring, Summer, review and feedback would be much appreciated. Send any and Fall, and appear approximately on the corrections to me at [email protected]. 15th day of January, April, July, and October, respectively. Submissions are accepted I want to take this opportunity to thank the Garry Oak continuously and published as space and Ecosystem Recovery Team (GOERT) for the wonderful editorial constraints allow. project they just completed. They successfully reestablished a breeding population of Western Bluebirds on Vancouver Letters to the editor and articles in this Island, and having accomplished their mission they have publication express the opinions and/or disbanded. The ongoing work of monitoring and managing positions of the authors. Submissions may those bluebirds is still being done by the Bring Back the be edited for length and content. Published Bluebirds Project within the Cowichan Valley Naturalists’ articles do not necessarily represent the Society. The folks at GOERT wrote a great article about this opinions and positions of the Officers, project for our Winter 2017–2018 issue of Bluebird, in case Directors, or other representatives of NABS. you missed it first time around. General questions may be addressed to Thank you for all you do for our little blue friends. [email protected] or call 513-300-8714 between noon and 8 p.m. EST. Please leave a message if no answer, or text any time. Visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ NorthAmericanBluebirdSociety/ The North American Bluebird Society, Inc. is a non-profit education, conservation and research organization that promotes the recovery of bluebirds and other native cavity-nesting bird species in North America. Tara Lemezis / www.flickr.com/photos/tinyseedphotography/ Tara www.nabluebirdsociety.orgwww.nabluebirdsociety.org 1 Summer 2018 | Bluebird From the President Bernie Daniel e are rapidly closing in on the last week in distribution and abundance over its range in North April and so it is time to write the note for America. In the future I hope to also address Western Wthe summer issue of Bluebird! However, and Mountain Bluebirds in a similar way. As always only in the last few days has it seemed much like I am interested in the opinions of the readers about spring even here so summer still seems a distant these articles. It is important to recognize that the hope. This has been an unusually cool/cold spring North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data, (cool and dry) for us in southern Ohio. Today I found which I primarily use to assess bird populations, out that it is not my imagination. U.S. Weather Service presents a singular view of bird populations. The BBS Meteorologist Jaclyn Whittal stated today that April is run in the breeding season (June) and therefore temperatures in many northern US cities are 10–15 the data is based on estimates of number of breeding degrees F cooler than normal and some may set a birds detected in the spring. But assessments on record in 2018 for the coldest April on record. Related, other measures such as the number of nests, eggs, I believe, is the fact that I am seeing few insects of and fledged young over the breeding season, or the any kind—even the usual spring invasion ants in our number of birds detected on the wintering range, kitchen and bathrooms has been only a shadow of would be other valid ways to assess bird populations past years. Nonetheless, the bluebirds are pushing and trends. on with their lives and I have a half dozen nests with 3–5 turquoise eggs in them. I certainly hope insects When we look to the BBS data to learn about status start to become more plentiful in the next two weeks. of EABL on the continental scale we see that they Another oddity is this year I have 4 chickadee nests have recovered nicely from the severe losses due to and another nest lined with down, moss, and leaves— the series of extremely