The Mary Houston Bluebird Trail
Here are the tentative dates for the 2024 Young Naturalists Bluebird Trail Monitoring (as best as I can predict) and some information about our Bluebird Trail. (This schedule will be subject to change. Updates will be posted on the web page)
To register for a session, or as many sessions as you wish, please e-mail saskatoonnaturekids@gmail.com indicating which date/time and how many people are in your group
Please review the list and let me know which date or dates you would like to attend. You can sign up for as many dates as you like. Enrolment is limited to 6 participants on any particular date to avoid stressing the birds and to maintain physical distancing. I usually stay out of the trail for about 2 hours. You are welcome to head back home at any time during the program. (If you are unable to attend on a particular date on which you have signed up, please let me know so we are not waiting for you at the meeting location. Thanks). The trail sections are tentative and subject to change. Bluebird Trail monitoring on any particular day will be postponed or cancelled in the event of inclement weather.
Don’t see a suitable date? Please send me an e-mail if you don’t see a date/time that works with schedule; there is enough flexibility in this program I can probably tailor-make an outing for your family.
Week One (and a bit):
Thursday, May 30 1:00 p.m. West location (Pike Lake)
Thursday, May 30 7:00 p.m. West location (Grandora)
Friday, May 31 10:00 a.m. West location (Grandora)
Monday, June 3 7:00 p.m. West location (Pike Lake)
Thursday, June 6 7:00 p.m. West location (Pike Lake)
Friday, June 7 6:30 p.m. South location (Blackstrap)
Saturday, June 8 1:00 p.m. West location (Grandora)
Sunday, June 9 1:00 p.m. West location (Pike Lake)
Week two:
Monday, June 10 10:00 a.m. West location (Pike Lake) CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER
Wednesday, June 12 10:00 a.m. West location (Grandora)
Wednesday, June 12 6:30 p.m. South location (Blackstrap)
Thursday, June 13 1:00 p.m. West location (Pike Lake) NEW
Week Three:
Wednesday, June 19 ALL DAY ALVENA BANDING TRIP (NEW)
Wednesday, June 19 6:30 p.m. South location (Blackstrap) CANCELLED
Thursday, June 20 10:00 a.m. West location (Pike Lake)
Thursday, June 20 7:00 p.m. West location (Pike Lake) CANCELLED
Friday, June 21 10:00 a.m. West location (Grandora)
Week Four:
Monday, June 24 6:30 p.m. South location (Blackstrap)
Tuesday, June 25 10:00 a.m. West location (Grandora) CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER
Wednesdy, June 26 10:00 a.m. West location (Grandora) NEW – WEATHER PERMITTING
Wednesday, June 26 7:00 p.m. West location (Pike Lake)
Thursday, June 27 10:00 a.m. West location NEW – WEATHER PERMITTING
Week Five:
Tuesday, July 2 7:00 p.m. West location (TBA)
Wednesday, July 3 7:00 p.m. West location (if needed)
Thursday, July 4 10:00 a.m. South location (if needed)
Our west meeting location is the Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotia Bank) at 137 Kensington Blvd. Park on the west side of the parking lot. From here we will either travel about 20 km west (near Grandora) or 30 km south (near Pike Lake).
The south meeting location is the Petro Canada Gas Station at Grasswood Road and Highway 11. (Right beside the big PetroCanada sign where it says ‘no parking’). The trail is located about 40 km south of Saskatoon and runs roughly parallel to the east side of Blackstrap Lake.
To sign up for any particular date send me a reply e-mail (or at naturekids@saskatoonnature.org) and I will send a confirmation along with more information about the Bluebird Trail. (Be sure to register. I only wait at the meeting location if there is someone registered!).
Be sure to use the bathroom before leaving. There are no bathrooms on the trail.
The Bluebird Trail is a bird monitoring program to study the productivity (how many babies) and survivorship (how long they live) of cavity nesting birds such as bluebirds and Tree Swallows. (Cavity nesting birds are birds that nest inside hollow trees. A nest box or bird house is essentially an artificial hollow tree). Since 1969 the Young Naturalists, along with many others, have been monitoring special nest boxes. The boxes are arranged in a sequence that is called the Bluebird Trail. The Prairie Bluebird Trail runs from near Edmonton to Winnipeg. Our portion of the trail (The Mary Houston Bluebird Trail) runs approximately 80 km (as the Bluebird flies) from Langham to Hanley.
Our monitoring of bluebirds and Tree Swallows is part of a larger biodiversity study looking at the recovery of Bluebirds (from a population low in the 1950s) and the long-term population trends of insect-eating birds (“Ariel Insectivores”) on the Canadian prairies.
I have a scientific permit to band birds from the Canadian Wildlife Service, so our program also uses leg bands to track and study the survivorship of the birds. Unlike other bluebird monitoring programs we carefully remove the baby birds from the nest box (which is the fun part for our group) to fit a numbered leg band around their legs. We will learn about how to properly hold a bird, and how to avoid stressing out a bird when holding them.
More information (more than you’ll ever need) about Bluebird monitoring check out http://www.sialis.org/
To help you pick some dates, here is a rough guide to what happens on the trail: (Remember, there are always exceptions to the rule when it comes to nature).
Last week of May / First week of June:
We need to record which species of bird is using our nest box and how many eggs or young are in the nest. This becomes the task of the Young Naturalists participants. (We’ll teach you how to identify the nest types and eggs).
Tree Swallows should be sitting on eggs. We find out which boxes have Tree Swallows and how many eggs they have. We will be attempting to band the adult birds in their nest boxes. I’ll need help from the Young Naturalists to catch them!
Bluebirds eggs should be very close to hatching or there may be young bluebirds in the nest. (Note: Mountain Bluebirds are a recovering species, only about 2-4% of the boxes have bluebirds).
Second Week of June
Tree Swallows are still sitting on eggs. Some Tree Swallow eggs may have hatched.
Most bluebird eggs will have hatched by now and the young birds should be fully feathered.
Third Week of June:
Tree Swallow babies will start to hatch. Some may be old enough to band. We will be banding the adult birds and any young old enough to band.
Bluebird young will be getting ready to leave the nest or have already fledged. Some bluebirds will be starting their second clutch of eggs if their first babies have left the nest.
Fourth Week in June/ First week of July:
Tree Swallow young should all be hatched and fully feathered. By the fourth week of June we will have visited most of the nest boxes. We will be driving to specific nest boxes we know contain young ready to fledge (the late bloomers!) and band them.