I recently spent an enjoyable morning with James Dean! No, not the actor! (I've retired, not gotten weak in the head!!)
No, this James Dean is a resident of Marion, Louisiana and is known as the North Louisiana Bluebird Man! He was the speaker at our March Master Gardener's meeting.
Mr. Dean is a member of the Louisiana Bayou Bluebird Society. This group is dedicated to the protection, propagation, and enjoyment of the Eastern Bluebird and other native cavity nesting birds. Their mission is "to assist in monitoring and increasing the population of the bluebirds by participation in a statewide nestbox program; to educate and inform the people of our state on the ecology and management of the Eastern Bluebird through schools, clubs, and other organizations; to conduct research on the Eastern Bluebird and it's habitat selection; and to cooperate and coordinate with other organizations with purposes similar to those set forth herein."
Mr. Dean makes his bluebird houses from cedar scraps that he gets at a local sawmill. In the past, he had as many as 1,100 active houses spread out on his bluebird trail around Marion!!! He traveled around this area maintaining the houses which took him up to three weeks at a time. In recent years, he has cut back to maintaining 375 houses. Mr. Dean also sells his bluebird houses. My husband, also a James, and I have several of his houses at Turkey Creek Garden and I can attest to the fact that they are well built and the bluebirds love them!
Not only is Mr. Dean knowledgeable about bluebirds, he is also a funny, charming man and an excellent speaker. Here are the notes I took during his presentation:
*Bluebirds are cavity dwellers and will dwell in any size cavity. The size of the hole in a bluebird house is not important to the bluebird; it is important to keep their predators out! Usually the hole is 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
*Bluebird boxes need to be 75 yards apart. They must be close to open ground (field, pasture, yard) where they can find crickets, grasshoppers, etc.
*Boxes need to be put on posts, not on trees. Bird boxes on trees allow easier access for predators.
*There is no minimum or maximum height for bluebird houses. Mr. Dean says the best height for mounting your bluebird box is eye level so it's easy to see inside.
*Bluebird houses can face any cardinal direction (north, south, west, or east), but should face toward a bush or tree so the fledglings will have somewhere to light when they leave the nest.
*It is OK to open your boxes and monitor what's going on inside. This should be done every 3-4 days. After the nesting cycle is complete and the fledglings have flown, used nests need to be removed from the box. Bluebirds will often build a new nest and repeat the process up to three or four times during the nesting season.
*Bluebirds have many predators and barriers can be added to the post to prevent access to the box. Chicken snakes are especially attracted to bluebird houses the last two days before the babies leave the house. The extra activity by the parents at this time cues the snakes that it is time to attack.
*Bluebirds lay 4-5 usually blue eggs, but 5% of them can be white.
*Bluebirds build their nests of pine straw. (Fur and lichen in the nest lets you know it was made by a chickadee, not a bluebird.)
For more information about bluebirds and encouraging them to nest in your yard, visit
http://www.labayoubluebirdsociety.org/index.asp Be sure and check out the wonderful pictures on this site. They also have a chart to fill out when monitoring your bluebird houses.
It was another interesting Master Gardener meeting!!
Love ya'll,
When nature made the blue-bird she wished to propitiate both the sky and the earth, so she gave him the color of the one on his back and the hue of the other on his breast.
~John Burroughs
~John Burroughs
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