Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Bluebird Society to host inaugural Nature Expo
BELLA VISTA — Since 1980 the Bella Vista Bluebird Society has helped a declining species make a comeback. In over 40 years, volunteers around Bella Vista have “fledged” over 1,500 bluebirds a year. The numbers for 2022 are now being gathered.
Open fields surrounded by woods are the ideal habitat for bluebirds. In 1980, volunteers realized that Bella Vista’s golf courses were an ideal habitat. Volunteers started making bluebird houses and organizing groups of boxes into trails that volunteers could tend.
In 2021, volunteers tended 651 boxes on trails located on the golf courses, parks, several churches and the Bella Vista Cemetery, according to the society’s website bvbluebirds.com. In addition, dozens of residents have a bluebird box or two in their yards.
Volunteers are asked to check on their box every seven to nine days, the website explains. Besides counting the babies, each box should be cleaned out after each set of fledglings have departed. The boxes are reused through out the season. Volunteers are also asked to watch for sparrows who may take over the nest, ants that can kill baby birds and wasps.
Assignments are passed out in the spring — usually with a public meeting at the library.
In the fall, everyone with either a home box or a trail with several boxes are asked to report their numbers either by calling 847951-1743 or by sending an email to bellavistabluebird@gmail.com. Society President Laura Claggett said about 90-100 volunteers turn in their numbers each year.
In recent years, The Bluebird Shed on Lancashire Road has been selling handmade bluebird boxes for the volunteer group. Claggett said about 80 boxes a year are sold that way. Volunteers build the boxes and help install them if necessary. All the funds made by the sale of boxes goes to buy more materials to make more boxes, she said.
The society celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2020. The plan was to host an outdoor event with other volunteer groups but, like many events in 2020, the anniversary celebration was canceled due to covid. This year the plans were dusted off and the Bluebird Society will host it’s first Nature Expo.
“Everybody is very excited,” public information officer Jacqui Stockman said. The Bluebird Society will have a presentation about the birds’ lifespan and food.
The Bella Vista Garden Club, the Bella Vista Fly Tyers, Northwest Arkansas Master Naturalists and Bella Vista Birders will be there, along with the Bluebird Shed and photographer Quinn Warsaw of Snappy’s View. A representative from Berksdale, the golf course that earned an Audubon certification, will also be present. Stockman expects each group to bring something to exhibit and people to talk about what that group does. There will be products raffled off as well.
The event, which will last from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Sunday will be held at the Lake Avalon Pavilion, near the Property Owners Association beach. Stockman hopes that the event will draw a crowd so even more nonprofits will participate next year.
The annual Bluebird Photo Contest is underway, but there’s still time to enter, Claggett said. Entries will be accepted until Thursday. Contest rules and an entry form can be found on the society’s website.