Cyndi and James Fowler : A former Girl Scout recalls her bluebird project.
CF: Back in 1995, 1996, I was a senior Girl Scout with Troop 69 at Fort Benning, Georgia, and for a project, called the Gold Award, I decided to do two bluebird trails. I monitored the bluebird population on Fort Benning, which means every week I would go out and count how many bluebird boxes there were, count the eggs, the fledglings, even the little tiny babies. And if one of the boxes got destroyed I was to report it to the wildlife place on Fort Benning, Georgia and I would go out there and get another box and I would put it up. And one of the things I learned about bluebirds – I learned a lot about their natural enemies like fire ants, black rat snakes, or any type of snakes, sparrows and starlings. I also learned that bluebirds are actually user-friendly. And when I say user-friendly, I mean if you see a baby bluebird or fledgling outside the nest, you can scoop the baby up and put it back in the nest, and the parents will not kill it. Now if you do that with a robin, or any other bird, because of your scent, the baby gets killed. And it was neat because it was my Girl Scout Gold Award project, but I actually had my entire family help me.
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