Sisters is for the birds

Last spring, City Manager Andrew Gorayeb and Public Works Project Coordinator Nicole Montalvo came up with a wonderful idea: Put up a bluebird trail throughout the City of Sisters.

With that in mind, Nicole got John Gerke, one of Sisters' premier birders, and yours truly to help pick out the habitat for bluebirds - both Western and mountain - that would use nesting boxes. The project will also provide the opportunity for willing residents of Sisters to help monitor and clean the boxes.

The city calls it Bird Project 2014.

The trail will begin at Black Butte Avenue and the city's pump station. The stop was to check for a bluebird nesting box, but as it is when one begins to look at the nature of Sisters up close, we found suitable habitat for a kestrel nesting box, and ultimately a hawk (or owl) nesting platform on the top of an old utility pole, east of the storage ponds.

The crew then went on to investigate the habitat of Creekside Park and found it ideal for three to four bluebird nesting boxes and a woodpecker nesting box for the signature woodpecker of Sisters, the white-headed. (Birders from all over the world come to Sisters to see and place the white-headed on their life list.)

Village Green Park was the next stop and another spot for a white-headed box and maybe four bluebird boxes. (Bluebirds tend to be territorial, therefore there has to be enough space between boxes to give the birds a sense of freedom, and that so one box can never be seen by another nesting bluebird.)

Creekside Campground has several excellent locations for bluebird boxes that won't conflict with campers using the facilities. It is hoped that guests and visitors will note the boxes and take the idea home with them and get their city officials to adopt a nest box program of their own.

East Portal will have at least two bluebird nesting boxes and a bat day-roost. The bat roost will be a trial to see if bats are foraging that far from Whychus Creek and the lights of Sisters. If there is no occupancy, the box will be moved closer to Creekside Park.

The Pine Meadow Village area gives way to the scenic view of the Cascades and open areas that killdeer like. Martin Winch has a small gravel plot on the northwest side of his land that killdeer like to frequent, so the city is going to see if Martin would like to have the gravel era enlarged to accommodate the needs of the killdeer and attract others of their kind.

There is also a great deal of open land to the west and south that American kestrels find good hunting for voles, mice, and lizards. There's a nice old juniper nest near that spot that's ideal, which, if Martin agrees, will be a site for a nesting box.

You will have the opportunity to get involved if you want to. On October 7 at 7 p.m. there will be a public meeting at City Hall for anyone who would like to ask about the birdhouse trail and/or want to volunteer to monitor and clean nesting boxes.

On two consecutive Saturdays, October 11 and 18, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., the city and volunteers will be erecting the nesting boxes.

Bluebird trails have been placed in parks and other suitable locations in cities all over the U.S. Such trails have brought the Eastern bluebird back from near extinction.

Because of the loss of cavity nesting substrate, the American kestrel is having a very tough time keeping it's number up in many locations throughout the U.S. Here locally, Don McCartney, a retired accountant living near the southeast area of Sisters, started a kestrel nesting box project about 14 years back that has kept Central Oregon's kestrel population far above those of other parts of the U.S.

There are several other cavity-nesters that will compete with the bluebird and other boxes, such as the worst alien invader, the European starling. Bluebirds have often been chased from a box by a variety of local swallows. But the most brazen and thoroughly delightful competitor for bluebird space is our local house

wren.

It's the bird that takes the best nestmaker award. The male is a sassy, hard worker. He carries sticks far bigger then he is to impress his soon-to-be partner and stuffs them into their home with the ambition and talents of a bridge-builder. When he's done, it's almost a miracle the female can get through the maze to find a level spot to build a grass-lined nest and lay her eggs.

If this project works the way it should, Dick Tipton will add another 30 or so to the hundred boxes he'll be making next year.