Sandhill Bluebirds

by Terry Ellis
(Bathurst NB Canada)

Up until 3 years ago I had never in my memory seen an Eastern Bbluebird. I travel the woods and streams fishing and hunting every year. As a child I grew up playing in open fields and do not remember seeing these birds.

To my surprise one morning I woke up to see the most wonderful bird I had never seen before. I tried for some time before getting a picture of the bird.

I spoke to local bird watchers who also had never seen the birds in our area. Then I spoke to some of the elderly people from the rural area around who knew of the birds and had not seen any for many years but had in the past few years noticed them more and more often.

Local farmers see them regularly as they make hay in their fields along the fences.

My son and his girlfriend thought nothing of seeing them in their backyard, just another pretty bird to them, nothing too special.

At 53 years of age I look forward to every sighting of these little birds. They seem to like the area and visit every summer.

This spring I watched with patience and they did not return.

Today is the 18th of July and when I woke up today the Bluebirds were on the front lawn. They have been around feeding all day. To my amusement hopefully they will be here the rest of the summer.

I have a feeling that they appear now as the farmers are cutting the hay in our area for the first time this year.

It is my belief that this chases them from their habitat in the fields out to other areas.

We have had a very wet year this year and the bugs are just really getting bad the past few days, this may also be the attraction to them.

No more rambling, just a note to say that in Bathurst New Brunswick that there are several sightings each year of this wonderful small bird.