Pres Winter shortlisted for Emerald Award
A Viking man who has spent over four decades making nest boxes for Mountain Bluebirds is a finalist for an Emerald Award, which recognizes and celebrates outstanding environmental achievements across all sectors in Alberta.
Pres Winter is shortlisted for a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 29th Annual Emerald Awards. The ceremony will be held virtually on June 2 at 4 p.m.
It all started in 1977 when Winter placed 200 bird boxes along roadsides in a 12-mile radius of Viking, in an area where bluebirds no longer inhabited.
The work expanded to include 1,200 nest boxes over 275 miles of trail. He cleans and repairs the nests every year, counts and records returning bluebirds, the number of eggs laid, and the chicks that are hatched.
His achievement citation states that there were 14 active nests in his first year and 75 young bluebirds were raised in new nest boxes. By 2006 this number had grown to 560 active first nests, 174 second nests, and 2,861 blue birds banded.
There were a couple of very bad years when cold weather and lack of food resulted in the loss of half of the bluebirds in 2007, resulting in only 1,231 young ones in the nest the following year.
“Since 2008 we have had a gradual increase in bluebird numbers and in 2015 we had a very unusual thing happen – 60 per cent of the nesting bluebirds nested a second time, and our nest boxes raised 3,166 young bluebirds,” he said.
In fact, 2015 was a record year with 441 first nests, 260 second nests, and 3,166 blue birds banded.
“Each year, we added more houses to our trail, which now covers a huge area from north and south of Bruce in the west to two miles east of Kinsella in the east,” he said. “The trails reached its peak numbers of 1,215 houses in 2010 and covered around 250 miles of country roadsides.
“The trail extended 12 miles north of Viking and reached out into the Prague area in the south.”
The year 2016 marked the 40th year of the operation of the Viking Bluebird Trails.
“In 40 years, I have only seen one other year where we had over 50 per cent of the birds re-nest,” he said. “It is usually between 10 and 25 per cent that will nest a second time. I think the reason for very high numbers re-nesting is a very good food supply. In 2015, there were high numbers of grasshoppers.
“In 2016, because of the large number of young raised the previous year, we had an increase of first nestings by over 100 nests. The second nests were just average, but we still had the second best year ever, with 3,037 young raised.
“So the last two years (2016 and 2017) have been the very best years since we started the Bluebird Trail back in 1977,” he said, at the time.
Winter’s Emerald Awards citation adds: “This labour of love and caring for the ecosystem of our region has been done all on volunteer time and resources.”
In 2017, Winter was fortunate to have five individuals volunteer to assist him in monitoring the 1,000 plus bluebird nest boxes.
The Alberta Emerald Foundation showcases and inspires environmental achievements in the province to help encourage acts that move it forward to a greener future. The awards started in 1992.
This year, the awards ceremony will feature a live painter, entertainment, and messages from dignitaries and environmental leaders across Alberta.
PATRICIA HARCOURT, EDITOR
THE WEEKLY REVIEW
