The contents of the old nests gave us clues as to last year’s occupants. A nest box crammed full of small sticks told us that a pair of House Wren had raised a family. A grass nest lined with many feathers was a clue that Tree Swallows had nested in the box. A grass nest without feathers indicated either a Western or Mountain Bluebird nest. In a couple boxes, we found nests made with a moss base. We knew that either a Mountain or Black-capped Chickadee had built these nests. Since adopting the trail, we have continued to maintain and record nesting attempts and success. With donated lumber, Roger Young hosted several nest box-building parties in his woodworking shop. Theresa Potts suggested we try pairing our boxes. The idea is that one box will be used by swallows and the other by bluebirds. This was being done in some of the trails in Montana with partial success. This has worked for some of our paired boxes but in others swallows have taken both boxes. Today, you will find that most of our boxes are paired. Between 1998 and the present we have banded birds and taken part in the Cornell Laboratory nest box program. For the last two years we have scaled back the work involved in those two activities. This year we will report bluebird-nesting success to the Mountain Bluebird Trails (MBT). MBT monitors Mountain, Western and Eastern Bluebirds throughout the Northern U.S. Rocky Mountain region and coordinates bluebird conservation efforts for interested persons or groups. MBT promotes bluebird conservation projects, conducts educational programs, distributes educational materials, collects and shares nest box data, and aids in the development of nest box trails. For more information go to their Website: http://www.blackfoot.net/~bluebirds/about_us.html

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