Monitoring the Bluebird Trail at Chinn (2023 season)

by: Rita Romano 

If you enjoy watching nature up close and personal, you would love to be a part of the team that monitors the Bluebird boxes that Prince William Alliance has installed on trails by the Chinn Aquatic & Fitness Center. We start monitoring 14 boxes in early Spring that are intended for Bluebirds, however, we get many Tree Swallows in our boxes as well, and sometimes a Wren. We have a team of 6 people, and we take turns peeking into the boxes twice a week until about mid-August. We have a friendly contest with another team that monitors 12 Bluebird boxes at Merrimac Farm to see which team discovers the first egg!

You never know what you are going to find when you peek in the boxes! Is the box empty, or is there a beginning of a nest? If there is a nest, what kind is it? Each species has special characteristics. My favorite is the Tree Swallow nest because they use feathers from other species to curl over the nest opening.

Are there eggs? If so, what kind? Bluebird eggs are…well blue. Tree Swallow eggs are pinkish-white. And how many eggs are there? Mother Bluebirds generally lay one egg a day until they have around 5-6 eggs. It is not until then that they start incubating the eggs. Really? I never knew this until I started monitoring. Once incubation starts, the countdown begins until they fledge, which is about 17 days. They are so funny-looking when they first hatch. Tiny little being with pink skin and a little bit of fuzz. 

One time when monitoring I discovered a snake all curled up in the box! I had my 5-year-old grandson with me at the time. I think his parents and I were more excited about the snake than he was! Twice this year we had the sad experience of finding baby Bluebirds that were close to fledging dead in their nests. There was no evidence of the cause of death. Did something happen to the parents? Was there an attack by a House Sparrow? House Sparrows can be very aggressive and can attack parents as well as babies. Whenever we discover a House Sparrow nest in one of our Bluebird boxes, we remove it.

This year we had a total of 67 bluebird eggs, of which 46 fledged, which is a survival rate of 69%. The survival rate for Tree Swallows was higher. We had 27 Tree Swallow eggs of which 21 successfully fledged.  Their survival rate was 77%. Merrimac Farm Trail had 32 Bluebirds fledge. Given the different habitat – more wooded and less open space compared to the Chinn Trail, no Tree Swallows were observed. Monitors did count 1 Carolina Chickadee and 5 Carolina Wrens that fledged. So together we had 78 Bluebirds fledge this year due directly to our efforts! 

I would like to thank the wonderful people who were on the monitoring team for the Chinn Trail this year: Amy Wilson, Jennifer Raybould, Jennifer Moyer, Kathleen and Steve Hurst, Janet Wheatcraft, and Brett Beckner. Thanks you to Charles Badal who leads the Merrimac Trail along with his team from this year: Val and Billy Ritter, Ines Nedelcovic, Susan Hunt, Marianna Juarez-Ordonez, and Chelseigh Bond.

Many thanks also to Kevin Parker who maintains the boxes and Ashley Studholme for her support and oversight. If you would like to join one of the teams at either Chinn trail or Merrimac Farm Trail contact the Prince William Conservation Alliance at alliance@pwconserve.org or (703) 490-5200.