ShawneeDispatch.com

Photo by Caroline Boyer

Becky Colin of Shawnee gently prods a bluebird nest she has been monitoring in a box along the Mill Creek Streamway Trail. Nine similar boxes were placed throughout three western Shawnee parks on Tuesday.

Becky Colin has taken heart to her volunteer efforts monitoring bluebird boxes on the Johnson County Mill Creek Streamway Trail in Shawnee.

The Shawnee resident checks on all 52 nest boxes on the trail from the Kansas River to the southern areas of Shawnee Mission Park. She takes pride in the efforts to save the federally protected bluebirds, who have been struggling for survival amidst competition with human development and non-native pest species like house sparrows and European starlings.

On Monday, she happily reported that she had 19 eggs and 27 babies, with several more boxes still to check.

“They’re hatching away, and that’s just so rewarding,” she said.

Which is why she helped initiate the placement of more boxes in Shawnee’s parks, contacting Neil Holman, director of parks and recreation. Holman agreed Shawnee should do its part to supplement the county’s efforts; he said the city formerly had some nesting boxes in parks, but they were vandalized over the years and weren’t replaced.

Three western parks, Gamblin, Garrett and Stump, each had three new boxes installed Tuesday. The boxes are fairly close to the ground on poles about five feet tall because bluebirds eat a lot of ground insects.

Colin said she has had an interest in birds for many years, helping her parents maintain Purple Martin houses. She began volunteering on the Mill Creek trail a year ago, helping ensure the nestboxes were being used by bluebirds rather than non-native or pest species.

One of the biggest problems, however, is human vandals; one of the boxes on the trail was vandalized just last week.

Colin said while she wants people to be curious about the bluebird boxes, she hopes they will learn that the newest features in Shawnee’s western parks are to be respected.

“Parents have a great opportunity to teach their children about wildlife with these boxes,” she said.

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