Village bluebird trail thriving success
by Tracy Dudley
In 2007, the Castle Pines Homes Association (CPHA) reorganized and established an over arching goal of educating new and existing residents about wildlife in the Village and addressing issues concerning increased wildlife encounters.
As an active volunteer in several wildlife organizations, Wildlife Committee member and Village resident Gina Gerken came up with an idea that would not only educate Village residents, but also help to boost population of an endangered species.
“I thought having a bluebird trail would be a wonderful way of accomplishing our main goal, which is to educate people in the Village on the importance of appreciating and preserving our amazing wildlife,” said Gerken.
Over the past 60 years, the population of bluebirds in North America has steadily declined. Today, there are many organizations actively working to sustain and increase bluebird populations. In our state, one of these organizations is known as the Colorado Bluebird Project, and is headed by Kevin Corwin out of the Audobon Society of Greater Denver located in Chatfield State Park.
Early last year, walks along an existing bluebird trail in Franktown with a founding member of the Audubon Society, inspired Gerken to get Castle Pines Village involved in the Colorado Bluebird Project. With a small group of volunteers, Gerken built and mounted 54 bluebird boxes along a trail that spreads throughout the entire village.
“The Wildlife Committee sponsored a fun Bluebird Pancake Breakfast last spring to celebrate the opening of the trail. We had projects for the kids…younger children got to make bluebird masks and older kids and families got to build bluebird boxes. We gave the groups that built the boxes maps of the trail and showed them exactly where we would put the box that they had made.”
As part of the Colorado Bluebird Project, several volunteers monitor the boxes and ultimately report nesting activity to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s national NestWatch database at www.NestWatch.com.
“This year we had more than 200 baby birds fledge from our boxes, and almost two-thirds of them were bluebirds. I would love to encourage other communities to start bluebird trails,” said Gerken. “It’s an easy, fun way to get people off computers and out into the fresh air – working together to benefit the environment.”
While monitoring bird boxes can be a lot of fun, it can also be very time consuming. Anyone in the Village interested in joining the volunteers on this project next spring is encouraged to contact the CPHA Wildlife Committee by calling the hotline at 303-952-0932.
