GARDENING WITH THE MASTERS: Bluebirds discover a residence at Reinhardt College | Life-style

During last year’s dark days of COVID isolation, two master gardeners, Ron Fister and Russell Brannon, built bluebird houses in their home workshops. As a result of their work, eight Bluebird houses were placed on the Reinhardt campus this spring.

The brokerage was a collaborative effort that involved many members of the Reinhardt University community, including Dr. Zach Felix, Dr. Austin Flint, Mr. Jeff Dale and Mr. Joe Skibo. There were also Josh Fuder, UGA Agricultural and Natural Resources Extension Agent for Cherokee County, and Mike Lloyd, another master gardener, as the liaison between everyone involved in the project.

The birdhouses were built to the specifications of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a well-known authority on birds, including bluebirds. And the homes have been placed on campus in locations and in directions that are convenient for attracting pairs of bluebirds to nest.

Although all nesting birds are welcome, the purpose of this project was to attract thrushes (Sialia sialis) to our open spaces and to increase their population in our county. Bluebirds are not on the Endangered Species list, so why build houses for them? Most of the time the answer is just because it’s great to have her around!

The thrush is considered to be the harbinger of happiness. It is also linked to health and hope. Seeing the male’s bright blue feathers and hearing their cute song seems to lift the mood no matter where you are on the happiness scale. And, Bluebirds are natural insectivores. This is bad news if you’re a mosquito and good news if you’re a mosquito bait. They also eat crickets, grasshoppers, caterpillars, beetles, spiders, earthworms and snails. So they are good to have in our gardens.

There are several types of bluebirds in the United States: Eastern, Mountain, and Western bluebirds. We are blessed with the Eastern Bluebird in Georgia and it resides year round. Bluebirds are most common in open areas with scattered trees. It breeds in many types of semi-open habitats, including agricultural areas, and can be attracted to our residential courtyards if there is a fairly large open area, e.g. birdhouses come in.)

Historically, thrush numbers have decreased significantly in many areas with loss of habitat and nesting sites. However, their numbers have increased again in recent decades, which has no doubt been helped by birdhouses in many areas. Today, a high percentage of Eastern Bluebirds in North America nest in aviaries, especially for them along bluebird trails. Reinhardt’s campus is the third of its kind in Cherokee County. The other two are in the Heritage and Etowah River Parks in the canton. All were created by the UGA Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists.

So greet the new residents on the Reinhardt campus with a smile.

Laura Long, Marketing and Communications Department at Reinhart University, contributed to this column.