Proposed Trail for Eastern Bluebird Nesting and Monitoring in Haliburton, Ontario

Proposed Trail for Eastern Bluebird Nesting and Monitoring in Haliburton, Ontario

Anna Robbins

Haliburton Highlands Field Naturalists, Shirley Morden

Tom Whillans - Geography

TP-4822

2019

Online

Haliburton, Minden Hills

The Haliburton Highlands Field Naturalists (HHFN) requested recommendations on constructing an eastern bluebird nesting and monitoring trail along Gelert Road from Haliburton to Minden Hills, Ontario. Gelert Road has 39 potential site locations that would be ideal to place nesting boxes on, located in grassland, farmland and well maintained private yards. The sites are placed along private land and once approved, would be accessible to volunteers monitoring the nesting boxes. The boxes should be easy and economical to build and mount. They should have a 3.81cm entrance hole with grooves on the outside of the box to allow the fledglings to leave the nest. The boxes should be placed at least 92 m apart, facing southeast in open areas with little ground cover. They should be numbered and monitored approximately every 4-5 days during egg laying, incubating and nesting periods. Monitoring should be completed from a distance once the fledglings are 12-13 days old in order to prevent them from leaving the nest prematurely. Detailed monitoring records should be kept and filed through HHFN. To increase feasibility of this trail, high school students, community members and HHFN members can come together to speak with landowners, build, place and monitor nesting boxes.