Standing (or leaning) dead trees in undisturbed forests provide the ideal homes for these little birds, but too often they are considered visual clutter in our fast-developing world and cleared away. It is good that many conservation-minded and bird-loving individuals and organizations have mounted thousands of bluebird nest boxes along highways and rural roads (such as the Blue Ridge Parkway). That helps; however, the removal of natural cavity space for bluebirds remains a problem.
What a delightful discovery it has been, therefore, to find a spot where bluebirds flit about freely just about every day my dawg Ellie and I walk their way. A little beyond a complex of county ballfields that we circle lies a somewhat marshy area with an untouched swath of forest containing a great many dead trees with obvious cavity space.
The bluebirds must think they are in Heaven.
So do I sometimes, as a result of being able to watch them flit about with their deep blue coloring mixed with chestnut-red undercoating. They warm my heart on the coldest of January mornings.
When the Great Backyard Bird Count comes around again next month, I may just take my binoculars and logbook with me on dawgwalks and do my observations from this Bluebird Heaven.
I just pray no official comes along to declare the deadwood an eyesore that must be taken out.
Let the Eastern Bluebirds continue to call this their Carolina home.
© Robert Gray Holland Sr. (2018)
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