Bluebird Trail
The Bluebird Trail project at the farm was created in collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Now in its eighth season, it includes 48 Peterson houses located around the research ponds and nearby fields. Bluebird trail map
The trail enriches educational programming at the farm, providing conservation and restoration opportunities. Alumnus Bill Jirousek and university staff member Betsy Banks, both farm volunteers, checked the houses regularly during the breeding season (April to August). The two recorded data and banded hatchlings. Many of the farm bluebirds wintered over, and the first bluebird egg was laid on April 18. A total of 167 birds fledged, compared with 141 in 2008. This included 44 Eastern bluebirds (34 in 2008), 32 tree swallows (11) and 91 house wrens (96). The last bluebird fledged on August 2.
Three adult birds were caught and banded, including one bluebird and two tree swallows. Another tree swallow was caught that had been banded as an adult in 2008. An adult house wren that was caught also had been banded as a hatchling in 2006.
The farm is an ideal place to create this trail due to the surrounding landscape, according to Dr. Tim Matson, researcher from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and instructor for the Summer in the Country Birds and Breakfast course. The selected area around the research ponds and along the cross-country trail offer two basic requirements for the successful breeding and living area. The first requirement is the need for low grass. The second requirement is the water resource, which the research ponds provide.
Trail data—recorded and analyzed at the farm as part of a long-term study—continues to be included in the national database totals of Holden Arboretum and Cornell University.