Bluebirds of Happiness

Just a quickie this morning for all of my bird-watching and bird-loving readers.

Some (rare) good news! The Eastern Bluebird, which has been threatened for years due to a combination of pesticide use, habitat loss and the booming populations of birds like starlings and sparrows, is finally making a comeback.

It's nice to think about the sweet little bluebirds right now, especially here in the Chicago area where we're facing yet another day of single-digit temps. I never saw a bluebird in my life before I moved out to the western burbs and started walking the forest preserve trails. Now I know that every spring, usually starting around mid-April, I'll get to see plenty of these beautiful, quiet-songed little guys out at McKee Marsh, which is part of Blackwell Forest Preserve.

Spring may not be in the air, but it's nice to have spring on my mind.

At any rate, the bluebird's comeback is being credited largely to the construction of safe shelter for the birds.

To learn more about the improvements and to learn how to construct a special bluebird home, visit this Web site: http://www.landscapeonline.com/research/article/8369.

And just think, it will really be only about a month and a half--maybe less--before our favorite feathered friends will start showing up in our area again. (That's not including the hawks, owls, woodpeckers and cardinals who've stuck around all winter.)