FARIBAULT, Minn. _ Carve out a good patch of open space here, and the setting is almost perfect for young families. Tidy fencing. Mowed grass. Majestic oak trees overhead.
"That's a dandy clutch of eggs," said Keith Radel. A grin tugged at his tanned cheeks, under the bill of a weathered ball cap labeled with his marching orders: "Minnesota Bluebird Recovery Program." Five perfect, glossy ovals with a hint of blue glowed against a bed of dried field grass inside a nest box made of thin-walled PVC. Radel had a solid but gentle grasp on the box. A bluebird family had taken up residence in the yard of a small bungalow in a quiet neighborhood north of downtown.
Checking bluebird boxes is what the Faribault man has been doing for 34 years _ setting up homes for bluebirds looking to start families each spring in Rice County. Homemaker and caretaker, Radel maintains a network of 175 nest box sites (boxes are set up in pairs) each year across 50 miles of this southeastern county, which has become something of a bird magnet. His "bluebird trail" is exceptional, built in part by the work of other benevolent citizen-conservationists who are a part of the state's Bluebird Recovery Program. The group, which began in 1978, has upward of 400 volunteers like Radel and recently became a nonprofit.
"He's just a really helpful guy," said Marlys Shirley of Farmington, the program's secretary.
But for the commitment and sweat of grass-roots operations like the bluebird program, the small thrush might not be spotted at all. In fact, they were nearly nonexistent in Minnesota in the mid-20th century as their nesting habitat degraded. There were other challenges, too.
Bluebirds are one of the first songbirds to return in April to Minnesota, their arrival seen as a harbinger of spring. But that can spell trouble, putting them in the middle of volatile weather as many migrate north from winter grounds in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. Late-spring snow and ice can often cover valuable food sources from the ground-feeding birds. Bluebirds lay eggs during a three-month window, from April to mid-July, producing two broods to care for.
There remain other threats in the air, too: Non-native house sparrows and house wrens will destroy bluebird eggs and kill or maim chicks and adults in competition for their nests.
The use of pesticides on insects also has been toxic for the birds and young that depend on them for survival.
Radel and hundreds of other nest-watchers have helped reverse the bluebird decline in Minnesota. Radel's backroads are one of those places. "We see more (birds) in Rice County because there are more (monitors)," he said. "There are a lot of us."
Last year, at 962 sites in Rice County, the reported data told the story: 4,069 eggs, 3,580 hatchings, and 3,479 bluebirds fledged from their nests. Statewide, nearly 12,000 baby bluebirds took flight. No other county but Rice has fledged 2,000 birds in a year. In fact, Rice County might be the most successful county in the United States, Radel said, a stat that noticeably brings him pride.
"All I know is Keith Radel does really good work," said Jim Gilbert, who met Radel nearly 30 years ago when Gilbert was the naturalist at Lowry Nature Center in Victoria.
"(The recovery program) has created a lot of interest in bluebirds for people who can't have a house," he added. "And it's all done for education and research _ and the research is strong."
