By Ken Kiss
[from fall 2026 newsletter]

This year we started monitoring Eastern Bluebirds at the Mines of Spain on April 19th and ended with one final check in late August. We try to monitor weekly during the breeding season but slow down our inspections in August when the nesting activity slows. We have a total of 30 bluebird houses, and typically we split the monitoring area into two halves, with one person doing the southern route and the other doing the northern route. This year Tom Davis and Lynn Schroeder helped me with the monitoring. The results are as follows:

Our total fledgling count of 75 was up 12 from last year. However, the fledgling/egg ratio was lower at 61.5% this year compared to 73.3% last year. We had several bluebirds lay eggs that never hatched and had some eggs disappear due to predators.

New Private Bluebird Route!

I’m pleased to share that Galen Mathis, who volunteered to monitor the houses with me last year, created his own Bluebird route this year. He put up 30 houses on CRP and prairie fields on his and his neighbor’s property along Chesterman Road and monitored them as we do at the Mines of Spain. His results are as follows:

His heaviest losses were in the month of May due to the gnats and black flies, but he counted 60 fledglings with a fledgling/egg ratio of 75.9%.

Cover: Eastern Bluebird at Mines of Spain SRA (7/8/23) © Marty Corfman