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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BLUEBIRD CLUB |
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Protecting Bluebirds and Other Cavity Nesters in Southern California |
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What’s New |
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Feb. 2007 — Boys & Girls Club Junior Gardeners Learn about Bluebirds |
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Feb. 2007 — Monthly Meeting |
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The inaugural issue of the San Clemente Bluebird Club newsletter has been published. Packed with tips, stories, and ideas, our full color newsletter is available in both print and PDF format.
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The San Clemente Garden Club has joined us in our efforts to bring bluebirds back to San Clemente! Sully Reallon met with six members of the Garden Club at Mira Costa Park on December 13th. To the amazement of all, a female bluebird entered one of the nestboxes as everyone looked on. Talk about good timing!
Garden Club members were provided nestboxes and lifters to get them started. We are very excited about this partnership. Special thanks to Garden Club President Launa Gould for making this happen.
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Dec. 2006 — San Clemente Garden Club Joins SCBC Effort |
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We are now on the Internet! This web site was created to inform the public about our efforts and to communicate with our members. Be sure to bookmark this site and visit often as we will be updating the content regularly. |
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To better communicate with our members and friends, we have created a Blog. What’s a Blog? Short for ‘Web Log’, a Blog is dynamic web content that allows us to keep you up to date on our activities and allows you to provide feedback and commentaries. Check it out: blog.scbluebirds.org
The terrific photo on our blog page was taken by Beryl Stark of the Tehachapi Mountains Bird Club. Beryl was kind enough to let us share her photo with you. |
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Dec. 2006 — San Clemente Bluebird Club Blog Created |
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All we can say is—WOW! The feedback we have received about our web-site and blog has been terrific. What we did not expect, was the number of people who contacted us from all over Southern California. The most common question? “Do I have to live in San Clemente to join your Club?”
It seems we did not set our sights big enough. There are hundreds of active bluebirders in Southern California who want to participate in an active club and they want to use the Internet to communicate.
So—we decided to expand our reach. The question is—how far? Should we associate with active bluebirders in Southern Orange County? All of Orange County?
Dick Purvis and Bob Franz, perhaps two of the most active and experienced bluebirders in all of California, suggested we extend our reach to all of Southern California. (There are a few small bluebird clubs scattered throughout Southern CA; but as far as we know, there is no single club that covers all of the Southern half of the state.) Who are we to argue with these two?
So—it is official! (Drum roll please…) We are now known as the “Southern California Bluebird Club.” We have changed our name as well as our web-site and blog location.
We are committed to the California Bluebird Recovery Program (CBRP) and are going to work closely with this important organization to make sure it thrives.
This is an exciting time for us. Please pay attention to our Blog. We will post our activities to keep you up to date. |
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The City of San Clemente Parks & Recreation Department has established a partnership with the Southern California Bluebird Club. Al King, Director of Parks & Recreation has authorized us to hang nestboxes in city parks and in the public golf course. Parks&Rec web site
This is terrific news for us! The City staff is very excited about this program and wishes us the best of luck in the 2007 nesting season. |
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The February 2007 monthly meeting of our club was held yesterday. Fourteen members showed up and everyone agreed it was a fun and productive meeting. There is a great deal of energy and excitement among the membership as we move closer to the 2007 nesting season.
The meeting agenda is here. The meeting minutes are here. See the Blog for more information about the meeting. |
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The City of Mission Viejo Public Services Department has an established partnership with the Southern California Bluebird Club. For the past six years, Mickey Romero, Public Services Supervisor, has authorized us to hang nestboxes in city parks and open spaces. I can describe the enthusiasm Mickey and his team shows for our program in one word—electric!
The City of Mission Viejo prides itself on the amount of land in their city set aside for parks and open areas. There are few cities in the western US that can match Mission Viejo in the beauty of their parks.
Our own Sully Reallon believes Mission Viejo’s parkland presents some of the best bluebird nesting territory in Southern California.
The entire City staff is very excited about this program and wishes us the best of luck in the 2007 nesting season.
Special thanks to Mickey and his team for their commitment to our mission. |
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The San Clemente Boys & Girls Club Junior Gardeners invited Sully Reallon to meet with the young and enthusiastic members to talk about bluebirds. Killeen Anderson organizes the monthly Jr. Gardener program on behalf of the San Clemente Garden Club at the Boys & Girls Club. Her description of Sully’s presentation makes it seem as if you were there:
“This month our visiting "Person of Excellence" was Sully Reallon, a local specialist on the Western Bluebird. He addressed the children on our local bluebirds, explaining the particular characteristics and habits of an unusual bird for our area of California. He handed out color pictures and information pamphlets to each child. We also discussed some of the challenges the bluebirds face in our area. The Junior Gardeners were very attentive as Mr. Reallon explained the importance of maintaining and monitoring specialized birdhouses for our scarce bluebird population. After the class, I decided to buy a bluebird house for my home and will be reporting back to Sully.
Many thanks to Clara Foulger for her assistance with and questions for the class and a big "Thank You" to Sully Reallon for taking the time to patiently teach our Junior Gardeners about our local bluebirds and for his efforts to encourage their proliferation in South County.”
Killeen, your service to young people provides us an opportunity to share our passion for bluebird conservation with the next generation of bluebirders. We are so grateful. |
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March 2007 — Monthly Meeting |
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The March 2007 monthly meeting of our club was held today. Fifteen people showed up and it was great to share a cup of good coffee with club members. We were honored to have two guests from LA County present.
The meeting agenda is here. The meeting minutes are here. See the Blog for more information about the meeting. |
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March 2007 — Local News Coverage |
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The March 1, 2007 issue of the San Clemente Sun-Post newspaper and the March 5, 2007 issue of the OC Register had an article about our efforts to bring Western Bluebirds back to San Clemente. Click here for online edition of article
The article includes a great photograph of our own Sully Reallon hoisting a nestbox into a majestic CA live oak in Tierra Grande Park. What a great way to start the 2007 nesting season. |
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March 2007 — CBRP Annual Report |
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The California Bluebird Recovery Program (CBRP) 2006 Annual Report has been published. Special tribute to Dick Blaine and Patsy Kahl for making it happen. You can download a copy at the below link:
We do not charge to join our club but we encourage you to join the CBRP to support cavity nesters all across California. Download the below membership form and send a check—Today! |
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April 2007 — Monthly Meeting |