OULU, Minn. _ David Lindelof stopped his Buick along Highway B in Bayfield County and watched a bluebird perched on top of a wooden nesting house, just as a ray of sunshine poked through the clouds.
"It's a bluebird morning for sure now," Lindelof said as he watched the scene through binoculars.
Just about every morning this time of year is a bluebird morning for Lindelof, 66, a retired Superior school counselor. That's because he's out checking the nearly 100 bluebird houses he's placed along the lesser traveled roads near the Douglas-Bayfield (Minn.) county line just as the birds return to build their nests.
Lindelof started the effort about 15 years ago after noticing something was missing from the landscape.
"I grew up out here. We used to see bluebirds all the time it the '50s and '60s. Then in the '70s and '80s, they just seemed to fall off the face of the map," Lindelof said.
It wasn't just a local phenomenon. Nationally, the population of eastern bluebirds plummeted by an estimated 90 percent. Ice storms on their wintering grounds had an impact, but a big problem was habitat.
Bluebirds are cavity nesters and there are simply fewer old, dead trees standing around to nest in; wood ducks faced the same problem. Bluebirds managed to get by in the first half of the 20th century, nesting in holes in wooden fence posts across the countryside.
But as metal fence posts replaced wooden ones, and as rural landowners simply stopped replacing old fences, with fewer farms having animals in the field, the last bastion of bluebird habitat declined rapidly.
The North American Bluebird Association formed in 1978 to help stop the decline, introducing hand made wooden nest boxes as a legitimate tool for the species' recovery. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Bureau of Endangered Resources sounded the alarm in 1986 and asked conservation groups to get involved by building and placing nest boxes. The Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin formed in 1986 and now has thousands of bluebird houses across the state, with a coalition of "trail monitors" who check on nesting success.
Now, bluebirds are back _ big time. And it's people like Lindelof who deserve the credit.
"They are a great bird. They are the standard-bearer for blue," Lindelof said. "My dad was a bird watcher. He was the principal at the local school here and he had a chart on the wall to get kids interested in birds, paying attention to when they came back in the spring. I've just always liked birds. Especially bluebirds."
The bluebirds come back each year around Mother's Day, Lindelof said. But many of his next boxes are already full with tree swallows that arrive in April. So Lindelof puts up his bluebird boxes in pairs. Often, a swallow will nest in one and a bluebird in the other, just a few feet away.
"The swallows won't tolerate another swallow so close, so they chase them off. But they let the bluebirds nest. So it's a pretty good relationship," he said. "Swallows are great birds, too. They eat a ton of insects."
He's much less forgiving of house sparrows. Lindelof immediately cleans out any nest box with sparrows _ an aggressive, invasive species that won't tolerate bluebirds nearby. The proliferation of sparrows is another reason bluebird numbers dropped. (Lindelof's nesting houses are designed to flip open form the side, exposing the nest without disturbing it. He can easily tell a bluebird nest from a swallow or sparrow nest.)
"We're supposed to check them every week this time of year. If you get them cleaned out (of sparrow nests) in time, there's still new bluebirds coming back that might use them," he said.
Bluebirds eat insects and favor open fields and meadows. They avoid forested areas, but like a tree or two nearby to perch on, but also love to perch on utility wires.
Lindelof can tell a bluebird perched on a wire from a quarter-mile away.
"You can tell a bluebird by its good posture," he said. "They sit upright. Swallows kind of lean forward at an angle."
Bluebird boxes should face east or north, preferably, according to researchers. They should be well away from any wooded areas, with at least 150 yards between them; bluebirds are territorial among themselves. The optimum height seems to be about 5 feet off the ground. The entry hole should be no more than 1.5 inches in diameter. And, they don't need a perch.
"There's a lot of information out there on what works and what doesn't. But even then, I've put them in places that look just perfect and they don't get used," Lindelof said. "They are kind of fussy about where they make their home."
Lindelof figures he gets bluebirds nesting in about 20 percent of his boxes, but gets swallows in about 50 percent.
Many of Lindelof's nest boxes can be see along Highway FF that runs from Douglas into Bayfield County. He started placing boxes along the open fields while he was still commuting to Superior. He asks permission of landowners before placing any boxes; no one has ever turned him own.
"I call it 'bluebird run,' " Lindelof said. "It was a good morning if I could see five bluebirds on the way to work."
Now, Lindelof says he'll often see as many as 10 bluebirds together, perched on a wire, during an early autumn walk near his home, after the young of the year learn how to fly. And he likes to think he had a part in bring the bluebird back to Oulu.
"It's just something I like to do," he said. "Maybe someone else will read this and get inspired to put some houses out on their own. That would be great for the bluebirds."
