Natural Perspectives -- Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray

Environmental news is often depressing. Wildfires burn out of control,

filling the air with health-threatening smoke. People die in

record-breaking heat waves. Droughts devastate crops.

Confronted with overwhelming evidence, the Bush administration finally

has admitted that global warming exists. In a recent report to the United

Nations, the Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged that the

current global warming crisis is due primarily to the activities of

humans, mainly the burning of fossil fuel, which produces greenhouse

gases.

We see the effects of global warming already. It’s only early June,

but all the snowpack in Colorado has already melted. Huntington Beach

residents depend on this Rocky Mountain snowpack to fill the Colorado

River and provide us with some of our drinking water.

We were appalled that the administration’s pathetic response to global

warming is that we’ll just have to learn to live with the consequences.

God forbid that this petroleum-loving administration should put any curbs

on the huge SUVs, motor homes, motorboats, personal watercraft and other

gas guzzlers that spew monstrous amounts of greenhouse gases into the

air.

You’ll be hearing more from us later about this report, but for now,

we have a feel-good story to lift your spirits. Despite a constant stream

of bad news about the environment, we found some positive news.

Bluebirds of happiness have landed in Huntington Beach. Real

bluebirds. A couple of mated pairs. Their chicks are just about to leave

the nest and fly on their own. The best part of this story is that the

bluebirds probably wouldn’t have come here without inducement. They’re

not normally found here. They were helped by the action of one man --

Dick Purvis.

Purvis retired nine years ago from his career as an electrical

engineer at McDonnell Douglas in Huntington Beach when, as he related to

us, work began to interfere too much with his birding activities. That

gave him more time to devote to constructing and installing bluebird

nesting boxes. Purvis has put nesting boxes throughout southern

California for the past 18 years. He finally succeeded in luring the

birds to Huntington Beach.

Although he was born in California, Purvis spent his formative years

on a farm in the mountains of Georgia, where he enjoyed watching Eastern

Bluebirds. Most of the local farmers there put up bluebird nesting boxes

because the birds benefit fruit orchards by eating destructive insects

and caterpillars. Purvis was fascinated by these beautiful blue birds

with robin-red chests and would check their nests frequently as a child.

Eventually, Purvis returned to California. On a picnic with his family

at O’Neill Park nearly two decades ago, he saw a Western Bluebird at a

nesting cavity in one of the big trees there. He was filled with

nostalgia for the bluebird boxes of his childhood and decided to try

making some.

In 1984, Purvis put his first two nest boxes in Featherly Park. He

noticed that the birds would venture a few miles away from the boxes.

Every year, he put up more boxes, installing some farther away each year

to help the birds expand into new territory. Sometimes he had to wait as

long as 5 years before the birds found and used the nesting boxes in new

locations, but he persisted in his efforts. He now has 350 boxes

throughout Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties.

About 30 people have joined him in this bluebird nesting box project.

Purvis builds the boxes with a hook over the top to facilitate hanging

them from branches. He has a lifter that enables him to hoist the boxes

over 20 feet. This puts the nesting boxes out of reach of the bird’s

worst predator -- humans -- and out of range of the powerful water

sprinklers found in city parks. With the lifter, he can safely take the

boxes down to check nesting progress while the parents are out hunting

grubs. With no need for a ladder, he can get the box back in place before

the birds return.

“I didn’t dream that I could get them as far as Central Park,” said

Purvis, “but I made that my goal.”

Last year, Purvis heard reports of bluebirds in Central Park, so he

decided to try his luck here. He put four nesting boxes in Central Park

and one in Edison Community Park. Bluebirds nested this summer in one of

the boxes in Central Park as well as the one at Edison Community Park.

Next winter, he plans to add more boxes.

Nationwide, bluebirds have been in decline primarily due to loss of

habitat. They prefer large, older trees or wooden fence posts for nesting

and open countryside for foraging. They’re rare in urbanized settings.

But provision of nesting boxes has really helped this species.

“Even though this is one of the smallest counties in the state and

it’s not particularly suited to bluebirds since it is so urbanized, we

have fledged more than 3,000 bluebirds in one year,” Purvis said.

In the face of so much environmental bad news, it’s wonderful to see

what a difference one person with a vision can make.

* VIC LEIPZIG PhD and LOU MURRAY PhD are Huntington Beach residents

and environmentalists. They can be reached at o7 vicleipzig@aol.comf7 .