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| Male bluebird at Watershed Farm 1993. Art and bird houses in one. |
I have constructed several hundred Peterson Bluebird houses in my time. I am just in the process of building another 25 to 30 in the newly organized workshop at Singleton. My wife has a gift for space management and has breathed new life into the Studio/Outbuilding.
When my Watershed Farm workshop was functional near Schomberg, there would be twenty or more Peterson boxes in construction pretty much all of the time. There were jigs set up to make every cut perfect. I still had my Dad's radial arm saw back then - a great tool.
There were always construction scraps left over at the farm to turn into something useful. As well, lumber is sometimes flawed, but as my friend Al from Cashway Building Supply in Schomberg wisely said, if you cut a warped board in half, it's only half as warped. With that sage advice, no piece of wood was ever discarded… only used in smaller birdhouses. Waste not and want not!
The northwest corner of King Township and the Oak Ridges Moraine/Greenbelt has a couple of hundred of those Peterson Bluebird houses, but there are seventy-five or more within the Singleton Sanctuary.
The current batch of Peterson boxes is being built with rough-cut pine lumber milled from my brother's Foley Mountain acreage. Our Singleton home is ICF, and that construction technique is over-the-top for a bluebird house. Each house is a bit different, with some character. There is even some hardwood in the mix, especially for the doors. Every joint is glued and screwed, so the houses should easily outlast me.
All varieties of birds enjoy the Peterson Blue Birdhouse design. There are certainly other plans to consider. See
- https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/build-a-bluebird-house/ (My favourite plan.)
- www.nabluebirdsociety.org/nestbox-plans/ and
- http://nestboxbuilder.com/nestbox-plans-for-bluebirds.html
The reward is and remains to see several broods emerge from each Peterson Bluebird house every summer. Sadly, some people have never seen a bluebird. We enjoy them every day. They are cheerful birds that also make terrific subjects for paintings. The following are all Singleton bluebirds.
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| #2841 "Blue Bird of Paradise" 14 X 18 inches oils on stretched canvas. Started Saturday, February 17th, 2024 |
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| #2850 "Mrs Blue Bird" 14 (height) X 18 (width) inches oils on canvas Started April 3rd, 2024 |
By the 1970s, bluebird numbers had declined by estimates ranging up to 70 percent. The widespread use of pesticides was certainly a factor. However, unsuccessful competition with invasive species such as house sparrows and starlings is also cited. These birds all compete for nesting cavities. The unspoken elephant in the room is the widespread and serious decline in habitat, both in amount and quality.
An upsurge in bluebird numbers starting in the 1990s can be attributed largely to a movement of volunteers establishing and maintaining bluebird trails. Cornell University's Laboratory of Ornithology reports bluebird sightings across the southern U.S. as part of its yearly Backyard Bird Count, something that we participate in at Singleton Lake. Female birds are less brightly coloured than males. The colour patterns are similar, and there is no noticeable difference in size.
With climate change, the bluebirds are now year-round residents at Singleton and seem to thrive on the cones of red cedars. Bluebirds can be attracted to platform feeders filled with grubs of the darkling beetle. These beetles are mainly sold online as mealworms. Bluebirds will also eat raisins soaked in water. Some people go as far as providing backyard heated birdbaths that winter bluebirds apparently enjoy.
We do not engage in any of these somewhat unnatural encouragements to try to persuade our bird friends to stay year-round. There are no mealworms or warm baths at Singleton. But I have been known to change my mind when it comes to assisting nature.
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| #2843 "March Bluebird" 14x18 inches oils on stretched canvas, painted 2024 |
Severe winter storms are even more likely in the cold trough that will dominate eastern Canada for the next decade or so. After that, the entire planet will be too warm for snow. Winter storms could result in many casualties within the bird population that refuses to migrate as they have for thousands of centuries. Bluebirds have been known to live for a decade, so the birds that inhabit the Singleton Sanctuary know us well. I would never wish to encourage their premature demise even though I love to see and hear them all year round...
It is a challenge to keep up with the changing climate. Nature is forced to adapt or die much faster than the maps are updated. The purple year-round shading of the bluebird distribution map reproduced below needs to be adjusted further north to include the areas northeast of Lake Ontario and Singleton Lake.
Woodworking can be as therapeutic and positive as art. At Watershed Farm, I tended to build more bird houses whenever "service through science" was ignored in favour of government bureaucracy. "Program Reviews", which is political double-speak for drastic downsizing of the scientific workforce also generated lots of bird houses. No science, no truth, no accountability, no problem... Weather and climate stations were closed. No observations meant that the impacts of changing weather could not be measured. Climate change must be a leftist hoax and fake news!? The fossil fuel industry still continues business as normal. Simple, unempathetic greed has been the defining modus operandi since the 1970s. For more on this, see "Big carbon's strategic response to global warming, 1950-2020" although I have written on the topic many times.
Current world affairs, the pillaging of the environment for natural resources and the impacts of climate change have certainly encouraged my return to building Peterson Bluebird Homes. The world needs more bird houses anyway... but I had best pick up my brushes again soon.
For more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections.
Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,
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