BLUEBIRD CHATTER

Winter 2014

The Maryland Bluebird Societys

FEEDING BLUEBIRDS IN THE WINTER by John Collier

How does one go about feeding bluebirds in the winter? The first step is to attract bluebirds. My secret ingredient is dogwood berries. My wife and I live in the middle of 5 acres of mature oak forest, which is not bluebird nesting habitat, but we do have bluebirds around. Near our woods there is open pastureland where we have put up nesting boxes for years, fledging 20 or so young each year. We have a birdbath available all year near the location of our bird feeders. Over the years, the bluebirds have learned where the birdbath is, so they frequently make use of it in warm weather and stop by occasionally the rest of the year. We only feed birds from late autumn to early spring. I have a large feeder filled with black oil sunflower seeds that attracts mostly chickadees, titmice, nuthatches and goldfinches. A suet cake feeder attracts downy and red-bellied woodpeckers and the occasional hairy woodpecker or Carolina wren. The bluebird feeder, which I made , is nearby. It is a rectangular box with oval holes at each end, plexi-glass sides and a removable roof. I start in November by putting about a dozen dogwood berried in the bluebird feeder while leaving the top off, so the birds can find and reach them easily. Sometimes the bluebirds remember the feeder from the previous year, sometimes not. Because they use the birdbath all year, their occasional visits give them the opportunity to discover the dogwood berries. The berries will dry out, so I put out fresh ones every few days. Once the bluebirds discover the dogwood berries, theyre hooked! Probably because of their high lipid content, dogwood berries are irresistible to bluebirds. I collect the berries in late September or early October when they ripen. If they dont pull off the tree easily, theyre not ripe. I try to collect at lease a half gallon but have collected as many as 1 and gallons. I store them in the refrigerator in a closed container so they dont dry out. I have to cull the rotten ones weekly. I lose maybe 1 to 2% per week. Finding enough berries can be a chore. One

Bluebirds are feasting on dogwood berries in John Colliers homemade bluebird feeder. Photo by John Collier

neighbor has a nursery-grown dogwood tree with huge berries that are way too large for bluebirds to swallow. The wild trees have smaller berries. I supplement the berries with store bought suet nuggets, but the nuthatches really go for them, too. When I start to run short of berries, I introduce the bluebirds to raisins. They wont eat them at first, but when theyre hungry, theyll eat them, too. Some raisins can be too large, so I cut the big ones in half. They also love currants and mealworms. The feeder for the other birds and the suet feeder always have a lot of activity around them. To keep squirrels and raccoons from reaching them, the feeders are hung about 7 feet high from a slack line running between two tall trees. The bluebird feeder is on a 5 foot tall post with a 40 inch long, 4 inch diameter pvc pipe predator guard to keep out unwanted critters. It is very gratifying to see a group of bluebirds, fluffed up against a cold winter wind, feeding heartily on the fruits of your labor. Give feeding bluebird a try, and good luck!

A GLEEFUL FLIGHT: ART MUSIC AND BLUEBIRDS

MBS will be traveling to the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in Salisbury on Friday, February 7 th, 2014 for their program, A Gleeful Flight: Art, Music and Bluebirds. Join us for an evening of bluebird fun! For additional information, follow this link:

http://www.wardmuseum.org/Portals/0/documents/education/A%20Gleeful%20Flight.pdf
We hope to see you there!

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JOE ADAMS, A NEW BLUEBIRD MAN

by Stan Fisher Maryland bluebirds have a new advocate. He is Joe Adams of Adamstown MD. Joe Has recently caught bluebird fever and he has it bad! He started with six boxes three years ago. He mounted them at his and his wife Mary Anns 287 acre farm in Adamstown rolling hills, mowed areas, farmland and woodsideal bluebird habitat. He was very successful with this first effort, so in 2012 he decided to expand his trails to 82 boxes and populate his whole farm. He built most of the boxes himself out of an innovative recycled cola bottle material. He mounted them by the start of the 2013 breeding season. As of August 2nd he counted over 229 eggs, almost all of which have hatched and fledged. He regularly monitors the boxes, removing predators and maintaining the trails. He has spread the love of bluebirds to his grandchildren who love to go on the bluebird trails with Pappy Joe. Joes previous bird enthusiasm was with purple martins. He has four large poles with 91 nesting cavities. He started with the purple martins around six years ago and has seen enormous success. He is fledging hundreds of purple martins each year (300 in 2012 and more in 2013). But this year, the purple martins have taken a back seat to the bluebirds.

MBS Members: Please check with MBS Treasurer Diane Seward trina65@verizon.net to be certain you are current with your membership. You can renew using the form at the end of this newsletter or online at www.mdbluebirdsociety.org If you know of someone who is interested in bluebirds, please feel free to pass this newsletter on to them.

MBS Officers and Directors for 2014

Officers President: Kathy Kremnitzer Vice President: Stan Fisher Secretary: Bonnie Bell Treasurer: Diane Seward Directors Fawzi Emad Anne Sturm David Gillum Jodi Hewitt Denise Farmer

Ed Escalante Matt Storms Michael L. Smith Jenny Hendershot John Corgan

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SOMEWHERE, OVER THE RAINBOW . . . . . .

Following is a story which first appeared in the neighborhood newsletter for Brunswick Crossing:

"BLUEBIRDS FOR ROSIES" at BRUNSWICK CROSSING

by Dick Foot
In tribute to the famed "Rosie the Riveters" of WWII, bluebird boxes are being placed in Brunswick Crossing through a program jointly sponsored by the Maryland Bluebird Society and "Thanks ! Plain and Simple, Inc." (Thanks!), a nonprofit organization that has created the Rosie the Riveter Project to guide Americans to find and learn from Rosie The Riveters. "Rosies" were the American women who worked in factories during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. ["Rosies" were immortalized by the Westinghouse poster "We Can Do It".] The City of Brunswick has been designated by "Thanks" as the First Model "Bluebirds For Rosies" City In America. A total of eighteen bluebird boxes are being hung in Brunswick, two of which are in the Brunswick Crossing master planned community. "Thanks" indicates that bluebirds were a symbol of hope during WWII. "The Bluebird of Happiness" - a song composed in 1934 by Sandor Harmati, with words by Edward Heyman and additional lyrics by Harry Parr-Davies, was a favorite on the radio in the '40s. The 1939 release of the Wizard of Oz popularized the song "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", the lyrics of which include "Somewhere over the rainbow Blue birds fly". "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover", an English song was popularized by singer Vera Lynn during the War. The Eastern Bluebird is a native, cavity-nesting bird that suffered plummeting numbers in the last century due to habitat loss, use of pesticides, and the introduction of two competing species - the European Starling and the House Sparrow. Through programs, such as the "Bluebirds for Rosies" project, the population of bluebirds is on the rise. Local members of the Maryland Bluebird Society will be monitoring and maintaining the birdhouses at Brunswick Crossing.

Brunswicks own Rosie, Ruth Kline Staples helps Maryland Bluebird Society volunteers to erect bluebird nestboxes at the Brunswick Family Campground along the Potomac River. Photo by Jenny Hendershot

The Presidents Perch

by Kathy Kremnitzer

In August of last year I was contacted by Karin Tome, Mayor of the City of Brunswick, and asked to advise on a project that the town was participating in. The non-profit organization, Thanks! Plain and Simple was looking for a project to honor the courageous women who served our country as Rosie the Riveters during World War II. The idea of erecting a trail of nestboxes was favored by many of these amazing women as their work days often began with the song, Bluebird of Happiness. I met with Mayor Tome in late August and we toured Brunswick in an effort to choose some ideal sites for nestboxes. In early October, Anne Montague, Director of Thanks! Plain and Simple, named the City of Brunswick the first official Bluebirds for Rosies model city in America. Several area Rosies attended the award ceremony and spoke about their lives and the duties they performed for our country. By mid-October, volunteers from the Maryland Bluebird Society met and installed 16 nestboxes throughout the city. In addition, the Society also donated poles and predator baffles so that nesting birds would be as safe as possible. Over the next few weeks, several more nestboxes will be installed in the neighborhood of Brunswick Crossing. All of the nestboxes erected throughout the City will be monitored regularly by volunteers from the Maryland Bluebird Society.

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Nesting News From Around the State

Donna Macauley Shoemaker, from the Lake Shore area of Anne Arundel County reported fledging 20 bluebirds from 22 eggs. She has fledged over 65 bluebirds over the last 4 years. *** Janice Ward reports the following results from the trails she helps to monitor on the Eastern Shore: Nassawango Creek (32 Boxes): 129 bluebirds, 28 tree swallows, 5 Carolina Chickadees and 4 Prothonotary Warblers Cedartown Trail (15 Boxes): 63 bluebirds, 15 tree swallows Hope Memorial Trail 23 bluebirds, 5 tree swallows and 3 Prothonotary Warblers *** Jenny Hendershot fledged 46 bluebirds from 10 out of 20 boxes on her trail in Washington County. Jenny has also posted some amazing photographs on the MBS Facebook page. Thanks, Jenny! *** Predation by house sparrows and house wrens caused trouble on Matt Storms trails in Baltimore County in 2013. Out of 21 tree swallow eggs, only 4 young were fledged. From 58 bluebird eggs, 28 fledged. A nesting of 5 Carolina Chickadee eggs fledged no young. Matt says that several nestings were abandoned for no obvious reasons. *** Ed Escalante filed the following report from Montgomery County for 2013: Little Bennett Regional Park (32 boxes) 105 bluebirds, 62 tree swallows He did not have issues with house sparrows this year but did evict a house wren. An interesting fact from his nesting data was that on May 27th, 37 bluebirds fledged from 7 different nestboxes. Ed says this accounted for 37% of his total fledgings for 2013. It was his 2 nd best year for this trail since he began monitoring there 17 years ago. From his home in Clarksburg he fledged 10 bluebirds and 12 Chickadees. One adult bluebird was lost to house sparrow attack and 2 house sparrows were trapped. *** Jodi Hewitt of Carroll County fledged 13 bluebirds this year in what was a bittersweet season for her. The first nesting fledged 4 young on May 9th. The female laid 6 eggs for her second clutch but Jodi noticed a problem and discovered that a predator had disturbed the nest and had removed 2 young. Jodi moved the nestbox further from the nearby fence and equipped the pole with a stovepipe predator baffle. The remaining 4 young fledged on June 21st. The female bluebird began her third nesting on June 29th but there was some trouble with house sparrows. Jodi eventually trapped and dispatched the male house sparrow and the female went on to lay a clutch of 5 eggs. All eggs were hatched by July 21 st, but a bad storm took the life of the female on July 28th. The male bluebird was able to finish the nesting and all 5 young fledged successfully. *** Dave Gillum reports fledging the following from his trails in Anne Arundel County: SERC (50 Boxes): 196 bluebirds and 5 Carolina Chickadees Jug Bay Wetlands (10 Boxes): 6 Carolina Chickadees, 23 bluebirds and 4 tree swallows *** Kathy Kremnitzer reports fledging 102 bluebirds and 95 tree swallows from the 32 nestboxes she monitors in Frederick and Washington Counties. Though she experienced some human vandalism to a couple of nestboxes, no eggs or young were lost and she was able to make timely repairs. She also had success fostering young in two separate instances. Montgomery County resident, Susan Moran, has monitored her 32-box Three Sisters Road trail for 45 years and reports the following results for the 2013 nesting season: 130 bluebirds, 13 Carolina Wrens, 9 house wrens and 8 tree swallows. There were failed nesting attempts by Chickadees and Tufted Titmice that were lost to more aggressive species. She also reports that 2 nestboxes had bluebird babies in house wren nests, which was a first for her trail. She expressed hope that her bluebirds were becoming more aggressive against the highly competitive house wrens. *** MBS Secretary Bonnie Bell monitors 16 nestboxes near Great Seneca Creek in Montgomery County. Her trail had 12 bluebird broods this season, with 2 being lost to snake predation and another to cold weather. In one nesting with 4 young, 2 of the nestlings died, probably as a result of weather, and Bonnie removed them from the nest. The remaining young fledged successfully. Bonnie credits their survival to regular monitoring visits. Her trail also experienced predation by a raccoon and, possibly, by a bear passing through the area. One nestbox had been knocked from its pole and smashed onto the ground. *** MBS Vice President Stan Fisher of Montgomery County fledged the following from his trails: Model Airplane Park(7 Boxes): 26 bluebirds Bluebird Hill (10 Boxes): 13 bluebirds Stellas Dream (70 Boxes): 114 bluebirds Four Streams G. Course (20 Boxes): 103 bluebirds MBS Board member Anne Sturm monitored the Stellas Dream and Four Streams trails along with Stan. Additionally, Anne reports the following results from Montgomery County: Linden Farm (10 Boxes): 43 bluebirds, and 20 tree swallows fledged Home Trail (6 Boxes): 33 bluebirds, 6 tree swallows and 6 chickadees fledged *** Mark and Jean Raabe have report yet another successful nesting season at Antietam National Battlefield Bluebird Trail in Washington County. Their 100 nestboxes fledged 451 bluebirds. This is a decrease from the record 574 fledgings in 2012. The trail also fledged 106 tree swallows, the most ever to date. In their 35 years of managing the Antietam Trail, the Raabes had fledged 9,270 bluebirds! Mark attributes this years decrease in bluebird fledgings to the weather. The 2012 nesting season begin with milder spring weather and the birds got an earlier start. House sparrow predation doubled in 2013, though Mark reports no losses from snake, raccoon or feral cat predation. There was also continued success with bluebirds ignoring the general rule of territorialism by using both boxes of a paired setting. Additionally, the trail usually has 2 boxes per season that produce white bluebird eggs. The eggs are white due to a genetic match-up. This season saw an increase to 5 boxes that produced multiple nestings of white eggs which Mark attributes to the passing down of the white gene. The Raabes extend thanks to John and Judy Lilga for monitoring the trail in their absence.
If your nesting data is not shown here, please share it with us by e-mailing it to griffin459@myactv.net It will appear in our next issue.

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Maryland Bluebird Societys County Coordinators

MBSs County Coordinator Program is an important aspect of what our society is all about, helping bluebirders throughout the state when troubles arise. These volunteers accept phone calls and e-mails and are ready to assist with information and resources on the spur of the moment. Do you need help figuring out how to set up your nestbox? Maybe you have an abandoned nesting and dont know why. Perhaps house sparrows are plaguing your neighborhood and you dont know what to do. Well, an MBS County Coordi nator is always willing to listen and share whatever knowledge and experience they can with you. Anne Arundel and Queen Annes Counties Dave Gillum 410 266-8775 dagmapper@verizon.net Baltimore County Matt Storms H 410 686-2089 C 410 952-4019 bigmattblue@gmail.com Carroll County Jodi Hewitt H 410 848-6154 C 410 303-7266 jshewitt24@gmail.com Carroll County and Howard County Felicia Lovelett H 410 489 -7169 C 301 801-1969 flovelett@verizon.net Cecil County Maryanne Dolan 410 398-7567 maryanne.dolan@gmail.com Charles County and Prince Georges County Jacalyn Thomas 301 203-5553 j-rthomas@mindspring.com Frederick County Kathy Kremnitzer H 301 662-7818 C 301 676-9371 griffin459@myactv.net Harford County Pam Ford H 410 569-2205 C 443 617-5556 jpford@comcast.net Kent County Karen Unruh 410 404-0155 karenunruh007@gmail.com Montgomery County Ed Escalante 301 972-3241 escalante@his.com Washington County Jenny Hendershot C 301 491-8823 djbmhendershot@aol.com Worcester, Somerset and Wicomico Counties Janice Ward H 410 632-0671 C 443 614-8318 Jward43.jw@gmail.com

If you do not see your county in the above listing it is because we do not have a volunteer from your county. Please contact us if you would like to serve as County Coordinator from your area of our beautiful state.
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THE MARYLAND BLUEBIRD SOCIETY, INC.

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
Mail to: Maryland Bluebird Society 10809 Rock Run Drive Potomac, MD 20854 Instructions: Print and complete this application and mail to the above address. Please remember to enclose your check payable to the Maryland Bluebird Society. Memberships and donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

[ ] New Application [ ] Renewal Application Note: Membership is effective for the calendar year (s) in which the dues are paid, except that dues paid in the fourth calendar quarter are effective for the year in which they are paid. Please check the appropriate membership category:

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