Bluebird project nets high honors

The Town of Saukville is for the birds, bluebirds to be specific, according to two recent awards.

One award was the recent announcement that Ozaukee County was granted High Flyer status by Bird City Wisconsin, singling out the county’s installation of 11 bluebird boxes this year at Tendick Nature Park in the Town of Saukville.

Ozaukee is the first county and one of 24 communities out of 110 in the state to achieve High Flyer status.

In addition, the Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin (BRAW) recently announced Ozaukee County Planning and Parks Director Andrew Struck as a recipient of its 2020 Achievement Award for work he has overseen in bringing back the eastern bluebird to Wisconsin. The award singles out his work at Tendick Nature Park.

Struck has overseen the installation of 90 bluebird boxes at county parks, including 21 at Tendick Nature Park and 22 at Hawthorne Hills County Park and Golf Course.

The bluebird houses are part of a restoration effort at Tendick that began in 2007 to restore native prairie and wetlands, plant native trees and improve habitat for fish, wildlife and pollinators.

About 40 acres have been restored. The 125-acre park includes a disc-golf course and boat and kayak launch. 

Other installations of bluebird boxes, which can also be used by swallows, include 28 at Mee-Kwon County Park and Golf Course in Mequon, nine at Virmond County Park in Mequon and 10 in the Ulao Creek Watershed.

Installation of the bluebird boxes has been partially funded by grants from Bird City Wisconsin.

Other cavity-nesting bird boxes installed by the county include 15 for wood ducks and 11 for kestrels, two purple martin houses and one chimney swift tower.

In its award letter to Struck, BRAW President Patrick Ready said that without his efforts, “the state of bluebirds would not be as optimistic as it is today.”