Citizens with nesting boxes currently in their yards are invited to join us on the Gene Clifford Bluebird Trail in 2023 or become prepared now for 2024.

Izaak Walton League's Porter County Chapter and NIPSCO invites you to register your bluebird nesting box with the Gene Clifford Bluebird Trail by following the instructions below in the RECORD WHAT YOU SEE section of this newsletter.

Gene Clifford was a nature writer, bird watcher, IWLA-Porter County Chapter member and lived his whole life in NW Indiana. His goal was to spread the joy of watching bluebirds in the yard by making nesting boxes available to local citizens. He spent countless hours cutting bird house pieces and teaching young people how to build and use them.

Through the support of the NIPSCO Environmental Action Grant, we are carrying on his vision and expanding it to include documenting bluebird activity with Cornell University Labs Nest Watch data collection program. As a citizen scientist, you can contribute too!

After registering your bluebird box with us, we'll teach you how to collect data. PCC's administrators can help you upload your findings to Cornell Lab Nest Watch or show you how to do it yourself. As a back yard bird scientist, you'll also learn to maintain a healthy bluebird population in your own neighborhood.

You have agreed to watch activity at your birdhouse, open the house for inspections and record your findings about nests, eggs and young throughout the season. YOU are a citizen scientist!

Also, you agree to follow Cornell University's Code of Conduct during monitoring. Your recorded data would then be uploaded to the Cornell Univ. Ornithology Labs NestWatch data hub. You are encouraged to continue the monitoring through the project's 2 year cycle which ends fall of 2024. If you monitor beyond that, it would be a priceless gesture.

Americans across the country are taking part in helping scientists keep track of our bird populations. You will actually be watching your birdhouse for a few cavity nesting birds. Tree Swallows and House Wrens will also use a house like this, and that's fine. But, it's a special time when the bluebirds come to roost and that's what we are trying to encourage. LOOK below to be sure you have the right space.

Our group is working with Cornell Univ. Labs of Ornithology to create a special "NestWatch Chapter" just for the data collected along the CLIFFORD BLUEBIRD TRAIL. That's where your data will be stored for use in migratory and reproductive research of wild songbirds.

USE THIS FORM to collect data, then watch for our announcement about the the Clifford Bluebird Trail NestWatch Chapter for data entry connection coming soon. If you need assistance with uploading data, we will be happy to support you.

This is the hardest thing we will ask of you...English Sparrows (or House Sparrows) may try to nest in your birdhouse too, but they are invasive and we do not allow them to reproduce in these boxes.

It is an aggressive species that will take over the nesting sites, territories, and food sources of native birds. Therefore; it is an invasive, non-native species that is very difficult to manage.

You would have to be able to evict a sparrow's nest, eggs or young to help reduce invasive bird numbers. Even under U.S. federal law, House Sparrow nests, eggs, young, and adults may be legally removed or destroyed. You'll learn the difference quickly between egg colors and nest styles to tell the difference.

To dissuade sparrows from your box, sprinkle red pepper powder in the bottom of the box. Also, hanging a few feet of monofilament fishing line around a bluebird house's entrance hole may spook House Sparrows due to their poor eyesight, which, ideally, will be enough to keep them from using the nest box. Bluebirds, and other native cavity nesting birds, are typically insect-eaters with good eyesight.

Then, watch a video on registering a nest attempt.

This is the data you'll record when you see a nest being built, when you find eggs or other collectable information about the bird's activity. Continue to add your sightings until the birds are no longer using the nest to raise young. Make a new "Nest Attempt" each time birds use it for a new brood.

If you need bluebird treats, more houses or good advice on wild birds, please feel free to ask the professionals at CF&G.

Chesterton Feed & Garden Center
400 Locust Street
Chesterton, Indiana 46304
P. (219) 926-2790
F. (219) 926-7412
E. info@ChestertonFeed.com