Subject: Bluebirds in western Washington
Date: Apr 5 07:57:07 1999
From: Andy Stepniewski - steppie at wolfenet.com


Tweeters,

On both March 24 and yesterday, April 3, I drove the Umtanum Road in the
Wenas which passes 125 bluebird boxes. On March 24, I encountered 2 Western
Bluebirds and 3 Mountains, on April 3, I observed only 1 pair of Mountains.
However, others in our group (the annual bluebird box cleaning day found a
Mountain incubating 5 eggs). Numbers of bluebirds seemed seemed low as
compared to usual for the date, but I have no definite data to back this
assertion. So, some factor has prevented bluebirds in general from
occupying their breeding habitat in their usual numbers so far this spring.

The weather has been cool this past month, but not extraordinarily so. The
winter, however, was mild as heating units to date are 4887, versus
normal-to-date of 5106. The snow is virtually (mini patches on shadiest
north exposures) gone from this area.

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA