Ellis Bird Farm Alberta

From: "Keith & Sandy Kridler" kridler"at"1starnet.com
To: "BLUEBIRD-L" BLUEBIRD-L"at"cornell.edu
Subject: Ellis Bird Farm Alberta
Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 08:01:13 -0500

Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Bluebirds began singing at 5:30 AM just about an hour before sun rise; a very cool morning for us at 67*F for a low.

We left the NABS meeting in Penticton B.C. and drove for 18 hours (two days) to get to the Ellis Bird Farm in Alberta. This is normally about an 8 hour drive I believe if you go point to point. We were on the road for a total of 11 days and we saw our only rain of the trip in Alberta just before arriving and off and on during the day while touring the "farm" and surrounding area. There was a bus load of school kids enjoying the farm and four bluebirders from Ohio showed up right behind us and they also took 18 hours to drive from Penticton!

Ellis Bird Farm is now run by Myrna Pearman whom we met at a NABS meeting in the 1980's. The 6 quarter farm (each quarter is 160 acres) was owned by Charlie Ellis who began putting up nesting boxes for birds. The third year he attracted his first pair of Mountain Bluebirds and it grew to the point where along with Tree Swallows he attracted a total of 60 nesting pairs of Mountain Bluebirds out of about 260 nesting boxes all located on his land. This was the highest ever concentration of nesting Mountain Bluebirds ever recorded up to this very day!

Charlie fed up to a ton of sunflower seeds a year along with planting another acre or so (his side yard) which he left standing for the birds in winter. This is table top flat farm land that stretches to the horizon and roads disappear in the distance still running in a straight line. The "mountains" are somewhere over the horizon to the west! Charlie was one of the first in the area to plant some real trees (originally a prairie grass land area kept that way with wildfires) along his property near the house to break the brutal winter winds.

Charlie sold the farm to Union Carbide for a plant to make anti-freeze (among other chemicals) with the stipulation that they provide for the birds thus his house and a few acres was turned into Ellis Bird Farm. Dow Chemical bought out Union Carbide and they continue to help fund the farm.

Today the farm boasts the largest number (about 168) of installed "working" nestboxes along with the names of the makers of the boxes. They stretch around the house and visitor center with a nestbox on every fence post or one about every 10 feet. (Myrna received another 30+ nestboxes at this last NABS meeting!) All types and thicknesses of material are used and many variations of ventilation, entrance hole locations, drainage and types of opening systems!

I was thrilled that one of my boxes was one of the three in the yard that were being used by birds that day to nest in!!!!! Of course it would have been better if it had NOT been a HOUSE SPARROW!!! :-))) Although it has been two years now since a Mountain Bluebird has nested in the yard they normally do nest in the yard and were nesting right down the road.

Myrna pairs the boxes spread around the county roads and in the past they used 30 feet between the boxes or they skipped a fence post. Now the Tree Swallows are so numerous that they have had to switch to a 15 foot spacing to allow a bluebird to nest. They do not have the Western Bluebirds in this area but they did have one pair of Eastern Bluebirds that nested in a box one summer. The boxes seem to be spaced about a pair and then about a 1/2 mile of road and another pair IF the area looks good for bluebirds. LOTS and LOTS of land with NO real trees along a mile of road!

The boxes are attached to fence posts and most are only about 4 feet off the ground. Trees are sparse and consist mostly of a poplar tree or one of the spruce/fir species. 640 acre cultivated cropland seemed to dominate the area we traveled although cattle were also numerous. Streams were mostly channelized (irrigation canals) although where left "natural" beautiful winding streams were criss crossed with active beaver dams.

After a strong cold front the nights were down into the low 40*F or upper 30's*, highs were only about 50*F here but in Penticton a record heat wave pushed the highs to 99*F one day! Purple martins were just beginning to lay eggs and we found six eggs in one box but Starlings were already fledged in a couple and in another martin house they fledged as we tried to remove the young.

There are NO raccoons, weasels, opossums, snakes, ants, ticks, chiggers, spiders, poison ivy, cat claw, black berries ETC. I never saw a cat running loose along the road sides and we did hear coyotes one evening yapping in hot pursuit of something! The sun sets about 11:30 PM and it never really gets dark enough to see the stars very well and the sun bursts back over the horizon about 4 AM. They complained about the mosquitoes and black flies but I never got bit once on the trip (probably was too cold up to this date) and right now am busily scratching dozens of chigger bites, fire ant bites and the giant horse flies were horrible last night biting right through a Tee shirt while I was mowing.

We saw a LOT of hawks sitting in the few trees along fence lines and abandoned corners of fields where the plows can't reach. I believe she said that Charlie had to "control" the Cooper hawks and magpies to "help" the bluebirds. Magpies are also a major predator and while we did not see too many in this area they were a very visible bird nearly every where else along the 2,000 miles we drove from Seattle, Washington to Kalispell, Montana. Crows and Ravens were common everywhere and seeing a flock of 10 to 30 Ravens was not that unusual! These birds would pick the dead insects off the bumpers of cars in parking lots!

Starlings were nesting in a couple of Peterson nestboxes with oval holes and also in some slot boxes where the slot probably was a little too wide or where the roof was "bowed" up widening the gap. Squirrels are very common and also could enlarge nestbox holes. Starlings were not too numerous as the farms were so huge and there really were very few nestboxes and natural cavities were few and far between as were the numbers of woodpeckers. Myrna had already trapped about 80 starlings at the "Bird Farm" this year so they evidently check out ALL the nestboxes in the region. We saw nothing that I would call a "forest" near Myrna and she said that the natural cavities in the scattered woods were always taken over with Starlings. This is tragic as their nesting season is so short and these birds start nesting so early.

House Sparrows also were not too numerous although here again she is constantly trapping them out of the boxes in the yard. We did not see or hear too many except when near towns as there were very few nestboxes any where along our vacation route. When we did see nestboxes we nearly always saw bluebirds!

We ended up staying an extra night and got to go see Myrna's "quarter of land" and saw beautiful country that was rolling a little that was better grazing land than farm land. The trees contained a Raven nest with young and active beaver dams controlling flood water (it was a trickle at this time of year). I remarked how great the open glades were mowed to about 6" in height and found out that there had not been cattle or any mowing done in five years......Cold winters and short growing seasons keep the native grasses short. I was thinking about that while mowing the 4 foot tall weeds yesterday for the second time this spring here!

We do this "for the birds" but it is really the people we meet that are sooo hard to say good bye to! So many WONDERFUL bluebirders out there and SOOO little time! KK

Ellis Bird Farm Alberta

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