Bluebirds get banded….

The bluebirds are coming back! Photo by Kathleen Foley.

They used to be all over the islands….then the last ones were spotted in the sixties. Now, it looks like the bluebirds are back.

Kathleen (left) and SJPT intern Anna working with the birds last week.

Looks like the Western Bluebird Reintroduction Project for the San Juan Islands is going well…started in early 2007, when eight pair of the birds were re-located here from the Fort Lewis area, the folks in the project have been monitoring whether the birds return after migration each year. (You can read the last three and half years’ progress on the San Juan Preservation Trust’s site here).

According to Kathleen Foley from the SJPT, the birds ARE coming back, and nesting here:

After a record number of returning birds after the northward spring migration (23 that we are aware of!), augmented by the spring releases of 17 more birds captured from Ft. Lewis and the Willamette Valley in Oregon, we now have 10 active nests in territories scattered throughout San Juan Island.  Several of these mated pairs have already fledged young (10 juveniles at last count), with more waiting in the wings (so to speak).  A fabulous start to the 2010 season, which promises to be the best year yet for breeding and release success.

Kathleen and volunteers banded bluebirds last week so the project knows who's coming and who's going....photo by Kathleen Foley.

A nestling - look at the blue on his wings! Photo by Kathleen Foley.

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