Last Sunday E and Husband and I tagged along on the bird banding tour. It was a beautiful June day for it…the hills around the Bird Farm were green and lush and alive with birds and plants and…mosquitoes…

I wasn’t sure who would be the interested audience for a tour involved bird banding and bluebirds, but in the end it was a mix of old and young…including one too young to walk, and one too old. But this tour was for all ages, and Myrna, our resident expert guide and bird bander, made sure everyone felt involved.

Did you know that the bluebird population of Central Alberta is significantly lower than it was three years ago? And that it is also significantly lower than the population in other parts of Alberta? Or that it’s a good idea to build bluebird nest boxes in groups of two so that the tree swallows don’t dominate the nests?

Myrna demonstrated how to band the tiny gangly bluebird chicks, working nimbly and efficiently despite the fact that bird legs were tiny and bands were finicky and apt to be dropped and lost amidst the grass around the nest box.

The biggest bombshell discovery for the greenhorn birder (me) was the fact that mother birds do not abandon their chicks after humans have handled them. That, as Myrna explained, is an old husband’s tale.

As we drove back along the gravel road from the nests, we saw the bluebird parents loping in flight along the fence line, probably bringing food back to their newly ornamented offspring.