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We have finally located a central county location for our monthly meetings of the Southern California Bluebird Club. Thanks to the efforts of Howard Rathlesberger and Dick Purvis we will be meeting at the Irvine Ranch Water District building at 9 a.m. on the second Saturday of each month, beginning July 11. The IRWD building is located between the I-5 and the 405 freeways at 15600 Sand Canyon Ave,
Irvine, CA 92618-3102. We have the meeting room from 8:30 for setup and plenty of time after our meeting.
Directions:
From the I-5 exit on Sand Canyon and go west about a mile to Waterworks Way. Turn left on Waterworks , turn left into the parking lot.
From the 405, exit Sand Canyon and go about a mile east to Waterworks Way. Turn right on Waterworks, turn left into the parking lot.
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| Posted by Jim Semelroth at | | | |
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We have most of our success placing nest boxes in greenbelts, parks, golf courses and cemeteries, but the bluebirds fool us sometimes. Three years ago, Sully Reallon hung a box at It's a Grind coffee shop, where south county monitors meet to talk bluebirds. Everyone laughed at Sully for placing a box in an unlikely place. The box is in a pine tree in ablacktop parking lot with only a two foot strip of grass below the box between the parking lot and a four lane street. Two months ago when meeting to carpool to a club meeting, we saw bluebirds on the box. Last month, nothing. Now in the first week of May, the nest is built and mama is laying eggs. Where they find food is a mystery. These birds are unpredictable. Maybe it's the coffee.
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| Posted by Jim Semelroth at | | | |
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On Saturday, April 18, the SCBC was active at the Fullerton Arboretum and at the San Clemente Community building where the San Clemente Garden Club held its annual show. SCBC had a booth with posters, photographs, brochures, nests, nest boxes, lifters and other information. Club members Earl Garrison, Sully Reallon, Mike Gould and Jim Semelroth staffed the booth. Enthusiastic visitors were given lectures and demonstrations in addition to answers to their questions. Several hundred dollars were raised in donations. Lifters and boxes were sent on their way to yards and parks. The two events provided club activists an excellent opportunity to tell the story of the club's successful recovery of the western bluebird in Orange County and beyond.
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| Posted by Jim Semelroth at | | | |
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On Saturday and Sunday - April 18/19 - the Southern California Bluebird Club was
represented at the annual Green Scene Plant & Garden Show held at the
Fullerton Arboretum. SCBC members Bill and Inge Wallace, who are volunteers at
the Arboretum, set up our participation. SCBC members Susan Bulger and Bob
Franz helped Bill and Inge at the SCBC table. SCBC visitors on Saturday included
Dick Purvis and Jo-Ann Coller.
In addition to meeting a lot of nice
people who seemed quite interested in bluebirds, we answered most of their
questions and were able to provide many of them with nestboxes and
bluebird-related literature. Donations for nestboxes and one lifter totaled
$465.
Some notable conversations included one young man who is the
Superintendent of Maintenance at Pelican Hill Resort and Golf Course. He not
only would like us to hang nestboxes there, but he is interested in
monitoring them as well.
Two other people introduced themselves as
bee-keepers and we plan to use their services as required.
Another
contact was made with a parishioner at St Stephan's Episcopal Church in Whittier
who want to have a nestbox on church property. Bob Franz offered to contact them
and volunteered to give a bluebird presentation at the church.
Another interesting item was a comment from the Arboretum
Staff that said they had several favorable comments about our booth and one comment
was that our booth was the BEST at Green Scene. A compliment indeed, and we will
accept it.
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| Posted by Jim Semelroth at | | | |
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Orange County Park Rangers assist SCBC monitors in many ways. On Easter weekend, Susan Bulger and Bill Wallace made a flyer about the dangers of Easter grass to the nesting birds. They sent it to the County Parks. When Jim Semelroth arrived to post flyers at Laguna Niguel Regional Park, there was the Easter grass flyer in full color posted at the counter of the ranger station by Joanne Scharnberg. Ranger Diane Wollenberg said the flyer had come in on email. After Easter when checking the shelters for Easter grass left behind, the Rangers and crews were mowing and sweeping up the Easter grass left behind by excited kids. With the help from Park Rangers, the Easter grass problem should be much reduced this year in County Parks, and the birds will benefit. Thank you Rangers.
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| Posted by Jim Semelroth at | | | |
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It's that time of year. Bluebirds are nesting and kids have Easter Egg hunts. How are these related? Dropped Easter grass is easy picking for Bluebirds that build their nests out of grass. They pick up the plastic grass and weave it into a beautiful nest, a nest that is dangerous for adults and chicks. Birds get tangled in the strong plastic grass and are trapped from leaving the nest to feed or fly away.
Please have fun finding Easter eggs, but pick up each and every piece off the ground and dispose of it. Help save all nesting birds.
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| Posted by Jim Semelroth at | | | |
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The Southern California
Bluebird Club has changed its meeting site.
The club will hold its
next meeting at a new location, the Conference Center at O’Neill Regional Park
on May 2 at 9:00 a.m. The address is O'Neill Regional Park
- more info » 30892
Trabuco Canyon Rd, Trabuco
Canyon, CA - (949) 923-2260.
To get there; take the
I-5 to Alicia, or Oso, or Crown Valley/Antonio
Parkway to Santa Margarita Parkway. Turn right on
Santa Margarita
Parkway to Plano Trabuco. Turn left on Plano Trabuco
and follow it until it becomes Trabuco Canyon Road. Continue down the curvy Trabuco Canyon
Road into the park entrance a few yards beyond Trabuco Creek. As you enter the
park, continue through the booth straight ahead a few yards into the parking lot. The Conference
Center is adjacent to the parking lot. Beverages and refreshments will be
provided.
If you do not have a
county park pass, you may have to pay a $5 entry fee.
Here is a Google map to
the park. http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl.
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| Posted by Jim Semelroth at | | | |
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The Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon Society has a trail in Ken Malloy Harbor
Regional Park in Wilmington with 10 Bluebird nest boxes. Today while doing our
weekly monitoring we found an active nest with a clutch of 6 eggs! The Bluebird
pair was nearby and acting a bit nervous as we checked the nest box. I'm sure
they were relieved once we re-hung the box and went on our way. Nancy Feagans
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| Posted by Jim Semelroth at | | | |
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The HELP club, Help Endangered Lives Prosper, an affiliate of the Southern California Bluebird Club, saw their first bluebirds Friday, March 13, a lucky day indeed. With club mom, Denise Legters, the club from Valencia Elementary School in Laguna Hills began monitoring their four boxes hung in December. Two of the boxes had new nests, and one had evidence that birds had used the box. Warily guarding a box in Knotty Pine Park was a beautiful pair of bluebirds, the first the girls had ever seen. Meticulous records of the monitoring were kept by the girls. Future visits should yield more firsts, first eggs, first chicks, first fledgings, an exciting time for the HELP club girls.
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| Posted by Jim Semelroth at | | | |
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On Friday, March 13 Sully Reallon and Jim Semelroth made a presentation to the Orange County Park Rangers at their monthly meeting at O' Neill Regional Park in Trabuco and Live Oak Canyons. The two club members were invited to the meeting by host Ranger, Lorrie Zuczek. The meeting was held in the conference center of the park. About 45 Rangers and County staff were in attendance. After a report by the County Director, Jim and Sully presented a 45 minute Power Point presentation about our SCBC, the CBRP and western bluebirds. As the presentation proceeded, a pair of blues were preparing a nest in a club nest box right outside the window of the conference room. During a break, Rangers got to watch the activity up close. We have four boxes in the park and they are producing bluebirds for park patrons.
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| Posted by Jim Semelroth at | | | |
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