Archery-only White-tailed Deer Hunts will occur on the refuge on
November 7-9, 2026, (Saturday-Monday), Nov. 20-22 and Dec 4-6. Raasch and Haller's Haven Hiking Trails will remain open; Harris Creek, Big Mineral, and Sandy Units will be closed for each of the hunts. More Information
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Bluebird nesting season normally begins in the beginning of March and continues until nearly the end of July every year. For information about Eastern Bluebirds, enjoy this PDF version of The Second Saturday Eastern Bluebird Presentation by Kathy Whaley, Refuge Manager. Interested In providing a home for your local Bluebirds? We sell entire Bluebird kits in the Nature Nook, complete with a pole and predator guard. Check out Sialis.org for tips on nestbox construction, placement and monitoring. |
The Bluebird Nestbox Project By Wes Crawford The Nestbox Program has been a well-established volunteer activity of the Friends of Hagerman since 2013. Every year volunteers are monitoring nearly 50 nestboxes on Harris Creek and Raasch Hiking Trails. Volunteers usually do box repair, relocations and cleaning during the off season from September through February. Then, towards the end of February, nestbox monitors pair up and select the trails they prefer to monitor for the season. The monitoring season begins in late February and ends in August. Based on scheduling, each team monitors about one time each month. Monitoring normally occurs on Wednesday or Thursday in the late morning or early afternoon. Volunteers sometimes have to be flexible about their monitoring day due to weather or trail conditions. Monitors carefully open each box and note observations on the Cornell NestWatch data sheet. Some nestboxes have sponsors and a photo is taken. Monitors will remove nests and clean the box once the chicks have fledged. A designated volunteer enters the data for all of the nestboxes into the Cornell database for scientific monitoring and research. Another volunteer takes the photos and prepares reports for the Adopt-A-Nestbox program sponsors. There is nothing like the joy in seeing the royal blue male Eastern Bluebird on top of the nestbox or the female bravely huddled over her eggs or the site of the fully feathered young waiting for the queue to fledge. One of our volunteer monitors this year was blessed by actually seeing a chick peck out of the egg. |
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Kroger: Stop by the customer service desk at Kroger and link your Kroger Card to the Friends of Hagerman: the Friends will get rewards for every dollar you spend, at no cost to you.
Please add info@friendsofhagerman.org to your contacts to ensure delivery of registration confirmations, account information and the Featherless Flyer
See you at the refuge!