By Val Vierk, Buffalo County Coordinator

On a Sunday morning at 10:30 in mid-June, Valerie Vierk picked up the phone to hear an excited voice exclaim, “Val, I’ve got a bluebird!” Then the phone went dead. It took Val a few seconds to identify the voice as friend and car poolee, Wilma Heinowski, who had joined BAN in spring 2007. Wilma put her bluebird house up in May on her parents’ land six miles south of Kearney that lies in Kearney County. It was placed near some trees in a pasture.

As she approached the house in mid-June, a male bluebird flew out, which prompted her to immediately reach for her cell phone to call Val. Wilma wasn’t able to get the Troyer house open, and Val advised her later it was probably best not to open it as she didn’t know if there were babies near fledging and they might fledge prematurely. Wilma and husband, Leo, live in Ravenna and visit Wilma’s parents every few days, so she isn’t able to check the house every day.

Wilma and Val have enjoyed the joke that although the cell phone went dead that exciting morning, the key words, “I’ve got a bluebird!” were all that were needed. Most of us remember our joy at discovering out first nesting bluebirds.