Bring Back the Bluebirds Project: Season four in review
A female western bluebird steadies herself at a feeder before slipping through the robin-excluding mesh to grab mealworms for her second brood of fledglings. (Photo: R Hetschko/GOERT)
When, just days into spring, more adult western bluebirds had naturally returned to their former nesting or natal territories in the Cowichan Valley than in entire years previously, we knew we were in for a remarkable breeding season. But no one...
The year the bluebirds stayed the winter
A pair of western bluebirds is spotted in March prospecting for nest boxes at a territory that has not been used by bluebirds since 2013. (Photo by Trudy Chatwin)
In Canada, conservation activities for the western bluebird normally begin in earnest in late March or early April, timed with the arrival of the first birds returning from migration to their breeding grounds. But it was only mid-January when we...
Bring Back the Bluebirds: Putting translocation to work to restore a rare ecosystem’s flagship species
In 2014, this breeding pair of western bluebirds returned to NCC’s Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve to nest for a second year in a row. (Photo by Jemma Green, GOERT)
As recently as 60 years ago, the gentle, vibrantly coloured western bluebird was a common occurrence in the species-rich Garry oak meadows and savannahs of the Salish Sea region of British Columbia and Washington. But as their habitat became...
