Eagle Scouts give bluebirds a home for the holidays

Two Signal Mountain groups working to increase the bluebird population in Tennessee recently converged over a conversation at the CVS photo lab, the workplace of Evening Garden Club member and Tennessee Federation of Garden Clubs District Three Bluebird Trail Chairwoman Linda Kelley.

“[Bluebirds] have lost a lot of their natural habitat due to houses and buildings,” she said of the native bird, which is also threatened by non-native species such as starlings.

Kelley said she developed a bluebird photograph brought in by a friend of the wife of John Glass, Scoutmaster for Signal Mountain’s Troop 60, which had started building bluebird houses for Lucas Marshall and Will Markham’s Eagle Scout projects in February.

The Tennessee Federation of Garden Clubs has chosen building bluebird trails across Tennessee as its project for the year, said Kelley, who is heading the project in the district and asked the photographer if anyone was monitoring the group’s bluebird houses.

“It worked out perfectly for us to monitor the houses for the Garden Club,” she said.

The Evening Garden Club is now keeping a weekly record of how many birds hatch from the 48 birdhouses built and installed by the Scouts, 16 of which are located at Signal Mountain Middle/High School and seven of which are outside individual residences on the mountain.

The number of birds to hatch from the 48 houses thus far is 182, she said.

TVA zooligist and former Eagle Scout Jeff Simmons was also instrumental in helping with locations and equipment for the project, said Kelley. The majority of the boxes are located on land owned by TVA near Nickajack Dam, where she said the Scouts added to a bluebird trail established 15 years ago.

Markham and Marshall were presented with a Certificate of Excellence by Kelley and the Evening Garden Club for their efforts.