Seeing bluebirds nesting in wood fence posts along country roads are cherished memories of long ago from the childhoods of both of us – Mearl Guthrie, in central Kansas, and Lolita (Thayer) in central Indiana.
And so it was in rural Wood County, Ohio, when we arrived in 1954. But not for long! The small farms with old houses disappeared. Gone were those roadside fencerows that provided habitat for the beautiful bluebirds. With a supply of bluebird houses, we sought out remaining natural areas and private driveways along which to mount bluebird boxes. Looking for an alternate to roadside fence posts, we turned to our local rural cemeteries, and used the perimeter of the cemeteries – the fences – as our bluebird boxing areas. Most of these cemeteries were owned by Townships, and their trustees heartily approved setting up the bird houses.
My interest in graveyard preservation melded this interest into a local genealogy society project. In the early spring of 1990, we organized a meeting program for the local genealogy group, “An Evening with the Bluebirds”, open to the public. The program included a video from the Bluebird Society, and distribution of 2-inch bluebird lapel pins that we provided. From that meeting, as part of an “Adopt a Cemetery” project, individuals and groups agreed to place bluebird boxes, facing into each cemetery, and to monitor them. Their occasional visits to monitor nesting activity, eject mice or such, and observe bluebird action, encouraged more visitors, who in turn, alerted the Trustees to any recent vandalism – a perennial problem for cemeteries.
Among the forty or so in attendance was one Brownie Girl Scout Troop. The Brownies purchased four boxes, and Mearl accompanied them to the cemetery adjoining the Wood County Museum – the former county home. The fun part was, when they went back a month later for their first visitation, these 8-10 year old girls squealed at finding a nest of white-footed mice in one of the boxes, and they absolutely refused having them put out of their home. They had a right to live too!
A year later, a second “Evening with the Bluebirds” was held, including a slide presentation taken of birds actually inhabiting the boxes. Mearl would assist others with building the boxes, putting them up, and making repairs. Lolita went with the volunteers to take photos of the various bluebird houses during that second year. Along the way were newspaper articles – the local newspaper was good to champion the cause.
After all these years, we continue to meet friends, who on their own, maintain and enjoy some form of bluebirding.
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