Fall Maintenance Started

South Side Boxes

There is a new gravel road on the South side. All these bluebird boxes can be seen next spring from the bike pedestrian path, whereas the area was closed to the public in the 2016 nesting season. I did see one bluebird today, and we even had a few at the last Christmas bird count.

I started some repairs and minor moves on the South side 14 boxes. The first box as you cross the (old) bridge was moved to a new pole. I left the old rusty pole there as I was out there by bike (bikes are not allowed on the foot path, leave them at the gravel) . It is of no use and will be removed.

This box had bluebirds nesting earlier, so I did not want to move it too far so they or their offspring can find it. The other box to its left was taken out as it lacks proper clamps. So now there are two empty poles in that first part. Moving along, box 5 looked terrible and had ants last June so I scrapped it and put a new box.

The pole is rusted but seemed solid enough. Some poles are rusted and have no rebar metal rod, they all will fall over easily and need to be replaced within a year or two.

At the middle, going to Coyote point, one box was part time under water last June so I moved it up to the ridge. The first picture has a square to show where it was. The second shows the two on the ridge now.

At the far end I moved one box, which last had swallows, so that it is now on the right. The left box was not moved, mainly because it had bluebirds at that location.

These were both badly behind sumac plants and far into the grass, They could be reached from the back trail, but that tends to get overgrown, so they can now be accessed from the gravel road, though a good 40 feet into the grass. Here the box needs to be a bit far out, as the tall trees can't be too close. The job of moving was the worst of the day, a good 10 minutes of pulling and turning effort as I have no power tools to do any of this, The rebar was pounded back by hammer and the pole goes over it:

Finally, I hauled the old box out by bike. I can carry just one box.