o p e n s pa c e
A Blueprint for Bluebirds
B y P am e l a B o e
T
housands of dead worms
lay at my doorstep. A
gigantic box of them. That
was how I met my charm-
ing Ag Reserve neighbor, Anne
Sturm, more than a decade ago.
Her dried up mealworms had
been delivered to my house by
mistake. So scratching my head,
I took them down the road to her
where, to my delight, I learned
their purpose: to help save the
Eastern Bluebird.
A resident of the Agricultural
Reserve since before there was an
Agricultural Reserve, Anne’s family
once owned the land around my
own little cottage on Peach Tree
Road. She still lives
just down the road where she nur-
tures all sorts of wildlife, but most
particularly, those sweet, bright
blue songbirds whose very exis-
tence are entirely threatened.
In the early 70’s, through
the Audubon Naturalist Society,
Anne met Dr. Lawrence Zeleny,
a scientist who first sounded the
alarm on the plight of bluebirds.
He sparked her lifelong passion
to save the disappearing species.
He was leading educational walks
on his bluebird trails in Beltsville
where she learned that the biggest
threats to bluebirds are European
Starlings, House Sparrows, and
habitat loss, but that the introduc-
Putting up a nest box
is the most successful
thing I ever did to draw
bluebirds. A variation on
a movie theme, “If you
build it they will come.”
- Anne Sturm
BLUEBIR
D im a
g es c
ou r
tesy
of j
en
ny H
e
n d
ers
h o
t
plenty I autumn harvest 2019
11