Well, you never know what weather you will get on any given day in March, but you certainly hope for the best when you’re standing outside all day. This year we did see the sun but we also saw, felt and dodged the WIND mostly on Saturday. Luckily our dedicated volunteers enjoyed a sunny beautiful day on Sunday.
The sun and blue skies must have inspired our Evergreen Audubon volunteers and nestbox customers because over two days we sold almost all the nestboxes we constructed back in September 2024. Literally, there were fewer than 10 left of all types!
After volunteering for this project many years, you see patterns emerge. Board members and volunteers alike are cheerfully engaging with curious community members who have taken a minute out of their busy lives to explore the idea of assisting our local birds with their housing issues. They always have such good questions: Which type of box and where to place them, the kinds of birds that would use them, bird ID questions, and then engaging in a favorite pastime – “Just the other day I saw a _______” bear, a mountain lion, a Magpie gathering nesting materials or an Osprey catching a fish, etc. So many fun stories. Our volunteers do enjoy these 2 days, giving and receiving such charming and captivating stories and anecdotes from folks we’ve just met.
Two teams, one led by Carol Burdick at the Conifer King Soopers, the other by 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. The five varieties are the Chickadee/Nuthatch, Bluebird, Flicker, Robin and Flycatcher, handcrafted by our members at last September’s Nestbox Build Day, were on display and interest was immediate! Many shoppers commented on the wood and quality of the boxes, a testament to the hardworking nestbox builders. There were additional comments about the importance of the work we do to conserve bird communities within our human communities. We also heard from previous customers who commented on how well their nestbox purchases have worked for them and several gave donations.
At both our locations on Saturday and Sunday, sales and indications of interest were 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. Our forested lands, especially, continue to age and mature and climate continues to affect snowpack and rainfall. When mature and dead trees are removed, so are the cavities that many of our feathered friends depend on for nesting (wrens, chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, bluebirds, and some swallows). 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 43 Chickadee, 11 Bluebird, 3 Flicker, and 20 Robin boxes, totaling $2155 in sales plus $70 in donations, which will help us purchase materials for our 2025 Nestbox Build in September. Those boxes will then be sold at the Alternative Gift Fair in November and again at next year’s March Nestbox Sale.
We would particularly like to give a great big THANK YOU!!! to all our volunteers:
Evergreen King Soopers – Judy Blake, Margie Clinton, Ed Furlong, Kim Hamilton, Melissa Leasia, Jane Locke, Lynn Montgomery, Nadene Pettry, Sue Robbins and Lisa and Dave Wald
Conifer King Soopers – Kathy Madison, Carol and Chuck Burdick, Cris and Thom Noller, Rachel Hutchison, Andrea Furlong, Margo Constable, Tracy Boyd, Bill Andrle and Dan Metzler.
And those who helped us collect and load up all the boxes on Friday night: Kathy Madison, Carol and Chuck Burdick, Melissa Leasia, Ed Furlong, Chris Marr, and Joe & Kristina Gurrieri.
So, this coming year, in the fall, when we are again building and selling our next batch of nestboxes, be sure to volunteer and join in the fun!
– Carol Burdick and Ed Furlong