A male Western Bluebird at a monitored nest box on San Juan Island | Kathy Finholm

The close of the 2024 breeding season marks the 18th consecutive season of the San Juan Islands Western Bluebird Reintroduction Project. As a result of the collective efforts of SJPT staff and local volunteers, this was another successful chapter in the efforts to support the resurgence of the Western Bluebirds in these islands.

Here are some notable statistics and highlights from the past year:

  • 6 breeding pairs + 6 unpaired adults returned to San Juan Island = 18 adults, which is 4 more than last year  
  • 37 juveniles fledged from nest boxes 
  • One possible natural nesting event, which resulted in 3 unbanded juveniles  
  • Return of a translocated adult female that was held in a temporary aviary in 2023 and released  
  • Female from Vancouver Island joined our population and bred with a local male, which demonstrates their historical migration pattern and is good for genetic diversity 
  • Sighting of a Western Bluebird on Lopez Island
    • This was unconfirmed by SJPT but an entirely plausible situation (bluebirds have been seen on Lopez sporadically since the project’s inception)

Finally, in early September, the San Juan Island Brewing Company hosted us as we celebrated our annual bluebird volunteer appreciation party, where we updated everyone on the project’s progress over the past year and socialized over birds, beverages, and bites to eat.

In addition to connecting with so many wonderful supporters of the project, SJPT Special Projects Director Kathleen Lewis handed out some tokens of appreciation (this year, pivoting away from the traditional Golden Nest Box Award) to two of the most outstanding volunteers of the project in the past year.

Please join us in thanking Leanna Paulsen and Jill Belcovson for their incredible enthusiasm, commitment, and contributions to the Western Bluebird Project in 2024. These two San Juan women took on less-than-glorious jobs that helped the project immensely. 

Jill Belcovson (left) with Kathleen Lewis (right) after being presented with her award

Leanna Paulsen (left) with her award for her services to the Bluebirds this past year, a photograph taken by Kathy Finholm (right)

Leanna, spurred on by seeing the devastation on her own property with cliff swallows, volunteered to assist with English house sparrow control. An introduced bird that can be lethal to other cavity-nesting species, this will continue to be a problem and a continued need for the project. Thank you for being on the frontlines, Leanna!

Jill took on the care and feeding of mealworms, a supplemental diet for our bluebirds, as well as mealworm delivery to bluebird families. This saved SJPT staff a lot of time and helped our bluebird monitors be efficient as well. Thank you, Jill, for providing this much-needed service!

View some photos of the bluebird party below. After some late August rains the week prior, it was an especially wonderful evening out at the Brewery!

Important reminders for nest box hosts and other (potential) bluebird volunteers: 

  • If you are hosting a nest box or monitoring a nest box, now is the time to clean it out! This training video shows you how and here are some more helpful reminders on how to maintain the nest boxes. Please let us know if you need help attending to your nest box, and also let Jack know when you’ve cleaned yours out! 
  • Please let us know if you, or someone you know, may be interested in helping us out with cleaning nest boxes or any other aspect of the Western Bluebird Project! We always appreciate the help and we like to think the bluebirds do too.
  • You can reach out to Kathleen (kathleen@sjpt.org) for any technical questions or to Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator Jack Russillo with questions about volunteering or any other SJPT-related topic.

Want to volunteer, or know someone who does? 

The bluebirds could always use more support, especially in the early spring when the birds start arriving (usually by late February or early March). We are in search of more folks who can help check and clean our nest boxes, and also monitor for bluebirds.

Please contact SJPT Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator Jack Russillo (jack@sjpt.org) if you are interested!