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Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 12:16:47 +0100
From: Colleen DeLong <cad25 at cornell.edu>

GREAT NORTH AMERICAN BLUEBIRD COUNT MAY 14-17!

Put your birdhouse on the map! The first-ever Great North American
Bluebird Count, May 14-17, invites you all to log on to
http://birds.cornell.edu and report your sightings of cavity-nesting
birds. The event, cosponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Nest Box
Network (NBN) and the North American Bluebird Society (NABS), hopes to
draw attention to cavity-nesting birds, including swallows, chickadees,
and of course, bluebirds during this Internet-based count. It's part of
Birdhouse Online, a new NBN/NABS interactive web site that has been
collecting reports of cavity-nesting birds since March 1.

Participation is free, and you don't have to have a nest box (though
there's lots of information about nest boxes and other related topics at
the web site). Just log on whenever you see bluebirds and other
cavity-nesters. View maps, regularly updated to reflect breeding
indications, such as nesting material, eggs, and young. There's also a
coloring contest for kids!

We named this count for bluebirds because they are a conservation success
story, rebounding after population crashes in the early part of the
century. Their comeback was due in part to the efforts of concerned
citizens who put up nest boxes around their yards and farms. Now we need
the data that are waiting in and around these nest boxes, and sightings of
cavity-nesters, to help ensure the future of all cavity-nesting species.

Please log on to http://birds.cornell.edu. You can send current sightings
(and previous reports) to Birdhouse Online at the same address. While
you're there, visit our popular Nest-box Cam, which is giving a "birds-eye
view" of the inside of a nest box in South Carolina, home to a Carolina
Chickadee family. The North Carolina nest box archive shows some
interesting photos of different species investigating a box, including a
bluebird at one point bringing in nesting material. If you are a reporter
or have such contacts, or would just like to see our press release, please
let me know and I'll email it to you. Anything you can do to help spread
the word would be greatly appreciated!

Good birding,

Allison Wells
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Ithaca, NY
amw25 at cornell.edu

___________________________
Colleen DeLong
Nest Box Network
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road
Ithaca, NY 14850

http://birds.cornell.edu
Visit Birdhouse Online. Tell us where your birds are and watch the maps
change!