The need for our nest boxes remains!
In contrast to the March 2023 nestbox sales, Saturday, March 23, 2024, was a sunny, pleasant, Colorado mountain March Day. The beautiful weather inspired our Evergreen Audubon volunteers and nestbox customers because over two days we sold almost all the nestboxes we made in September 2023!
Our two teams, led by Carol Burdick at the Aspen Park King Soopers and Ed Furlong at the Bergen Park King Soopers, found many of the Bear Creek watershed’s human residents shopping for groceries and happy to buy nestboxes. Our Evergreen Audubon volunteers greeted everyone cheerfully, answering all types of questions regarding where to place the boxes, the kinds of birds that would use them, bird ID questions, and really engaging with our community to help solve the bird housing crisis. The five varieties of nestboxes (Nuthatch/Chickadee, Bluebird, Flicker, Robin and Flycatcher), handcrafted by our members at last August’s Nestbox Build Day, were on display and interest was immediate!
At both our locations and on both Saturday and Sunday, sales and indications of interest were friendly opportunities to engage with our community on the importance of placing nestboxes in the forests and meadows of our watershed. The need for nestboxes continues to grow dramatically, as available buildable lots have become new homesites, and as our communities mitigate forested lands to minimize wildfire risk as our forested lands continue to age and mature, and as climate continues to affect snowpack and rainfall. The avid purchase of our nestboxes (sold at cost as part of our mission to serve our avian communities) shows that we are getting this message across.
Over the weekend we sold 44 Chickadee, 39 Bluebird, 8 Flicker, 14 Robin, and 11 Flycatcher boxes, totaling $3465 in sales and $100 in donations, which will help us purchase materials for our 2024 Nestbox Build in September; those boxes will then be sold at the Alternative Gift Fair and the March 2025 Nestbox Sale. Two themes cropped up throughout the sale days: (1) the quality of boxes is a credit to all our Nestbox Build Day volunteers, and (2) the work we do to conserve bird communities within our human communities is important and is much appreciated: many people commented on how well their previous nestbox purchases have worked for them and several gave donations, and they also told us how important it is to provide birds with nesting.
We would particularly like to give a great big THANK YOU!!! to all our volunteers: Bill Andrle, Susan Arntson, Judith Blake, Barbara Boyle, Chuck Burdick, Carol Burdick, Margo Constable, Andrea Furlong, Ed Furlong, Steve Garman, Rachel Hutchison, Barbara Klaus, Susan Krause, Kathy Madison, Lynn Montgomery, Cris Noller, Dick Prickett, Sue Robbins, Dwight Souder, Amy Stephenson, Katrina Trowbridge, Joyce Trygstad Nelson, David Wald, Lisa Wald, and Sheryl Zhong.
So, this coming year, when we are building and selling our next batch of nestboxes, be sure to volunteer and join in the fun!
– Carol Burdick and Ed Furlong