Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Thursday, May 27, 2004
Group helps bluebirds make a comeback
 Five generations ....... (from right) Crystal Arenz with her newborn daughter Ariana Arenz, Paula Clark, Betty Peterson, Mary Arenz, Alva VanRiper, Mike Arenz, and Lorraine Hoffman. PETER THOMSON photo |
ONALASKA, Wis. Leif Marking is polite when checking his bluebird boxes: He always knocks before entering.
If the lady of the house was still inside, he explained, he didn't want to surprise her. A few light taps flushed the female, who watched from a nearby fence as Marking opened the box.
With a metal spatula, Marking carefully lifted out the cube-shaped nest of woven grass. In a knot at the center were four nestlings, naked but for a few wisps of down. Marking brushed a finger across the babies' backs, and suddenly the nest bloomed with diamond mouths, the color of egg yolk.
He scraped out any debris in the bottom of the box a type of blowfly maggot tends to hatch in nest boxes, and has been known to weaken baby birds by feeding on their blood then gently slid the nest back into place.
Each week, Marking does the same routine with more than 100 bluebird boxes in the region, monitoring them with the care of a farmer overseeing his crops.
In his case, he's cultivating bluebirds and he thinks he could have a bumper crop in 2004.
Marking is part of the Brice Prairie Conservation Association, which in recent years has focused on fostering bluebirds by building and tending trails of nesting boxes.
In 2003, 14 members of the group had more than 500 boxes through La Crosse County and other parts of western Wisconsin. The results were impressive 2,001 young bluebirds for the year, an average of about four per box.
Though never classified as endangered, the bluebird showed a marked decline in the United States in the late 1900s, and by the 1970s had become a rare sight along the ridges, Marking said.
Marking remembered as a boy seeing bluebirds nest in holes in wood fence posts on his family farms. But steel fencing started to replace wood on farms, then many of the farms and open fields the birds favored began filling in with homes. English sparrows and starlings, both introduced species, also regularly took over prime nest sites, sometimes killing the bluebirds in the process.
Recognizing the species was in trouble, the North American Bluebird Society was formed in 1978, and led to a number of state programs to promote building bluebird houses.
The birds are cavity nesters, Marking said, but can't carve their own holes in wood, so have to rely on others.
After several years noting bluebird preferences, the conservation group has almost made a science of setting up boxes, Marking said.
The prevailing box design used to be about 14 inches deep, but they found the birds were stuffing in up to eight inches of nesting material to come closer to the hole.
The group's boxes are more shallow, with a side door for inspecting and cleaning. They use cedar wood, since it is naturally resistant to rot, and leave small drainage holes at the corners so rain doesn't collect in the bottom. Even after last week's series of storms, the nests appeared tinder-dry this week.
Marking sets his boxes so they face east, to provide maximum sun and warmth yet avoid exposure to any storms that might sweep in from the west.
Poles to the houses are placed inside a length of PVC pipe, considered too slippery for a predator to climb.
That doesn't always work, Marking said. One cat last summer managed to foil the PVC pipe by leaping six feet and grabbing onto the hole on the box; Marking found claw marks on the wood and only one baby in a nest left in tatters. The next day, the lone survivor was gone as well.
This year, the 25 boxes Marking has on Marking Ridge have 21 bluebird nests, plus a couple pairs of tree swallows. Only two boxes are unused.
"So that makes me feel real good and real successful," Marking said.
He set up other trails in Jostad Coulee, Larson Coulee, Gills Coulee and Barre Mills even a few houses near Coon Valley. He kept track of 169 boxes last year, and said he added a few more since.
He checks them "religiously" every Sunday, after church. "The minister has a time to pray, and I always pray for bluebirds," he said.
Bluebirds tend to be tough and adaptive when it comes to cold, but relatively vulnerable to competition from other birds. This year, a pair that tried to set up in Marking's backyard box were foiled by wrens, a smaller bird that nonetheless punched holes in the nest's eggs until the bluebirds gave up.
"They're nasty little creatures, I think," Marking's wife, Carol, said of the wrens, who never did wind up using the box themselves.
But another bluebird pair showed up this week and seems ready to give it a try. It's one of the things Marking admires about the colorful birds when disaster strikes, they always seem willing to lay another batch of eggs and give it another go.
"I just learn so much from the bluebirds, their activities and reactions," Marking said.
ABOUT THE GROUP
The Brice Prairie Conservation Association sells bluebird boxes for $20. For more information on its program or on setting up bluebird houses, contact Leif Marking at (608) 781-0323 or cmarking@centurytel.net.
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