Who We Are
Calgary Area Nestbox Monitors Society is a network of over 70 trails with over 5000 nestboxes and nearly 100 monitors.
Mission:
Our goals are to provide Nest Boxes for native, cavity nesting birds, to monitor the birds’ activities, and to collect data to share with other organizations, to aid conservation
Board of Directors
President Ron Reist
Vice President Bob Cooper
Secretary Lise Mayne
Treasurer Jim Critchley
Our History
Bluebird trails in the Calgary area have been around since 1973 when Harold Pinel began mounting nestboxes. Over a two-year period, Harold built several trails by placing 400 nestboxes along Hwy. 22 from Chain Lakes to Sundre and then east of Didsbury. Harold published the results of his monitoring activity in Blue Jay, the quarterly bulletin of Nature Saskatchewan, considered to be the primary natural history publication of the prairie provinces. In 1979, several members of the Calgary Field Naturalists’ Society informally monitored Harold’s nestboxes when he no longer had time to monitor the trails.
Calgary Area Bluebird Trail Monitors (CABTM) was officially founded in 1980 when more trails were gradually added in favorable bluebird habitat in the foothills, northwest and southwest of Calgary, and also east of Didsbury and Olds. Areas that were not favourable bluebird habit were abandoned. The 1980 monitors included Don Stiles, Andrew Stiles, Kay Morck, Blake Stillings, and Ray & Agnes Woods. Don Stiles, Andrew Stiles, and Ray & Agnes Woods continue as active monitors in 2020 (2020 was their 41st anniversary!).
An excerpt from the 1980 Calgary Area Bluebird Trail Results states:
"Six active monitors covered a grand total of 743 boxes on 379 miles of line which resulted in approximately 1,000 Mountain Bluebirds and 2,189 Tree Swallows being fledged.”
Calgary Area Bluebird Trail Monitors (CABTM) changed their name to Calgary Area Nestbox Monitors (CANM) in 2009 to acknowledge Mountain Bluebirds did not nest on every trail. On April 12, 2018, the name was modified to Calgary Area Nestbox Monitors Society (CANMS) when the group became an Alberta Society.
Over time, the number of trails and monitors increased. A sample of the number of monitors over the years: 1980 – 7 monitors, 1987 – 24, 1994 – 42, and 2009 – 49. Harold Pinel (1973), George Loades (1986), Don Conrad (1999-2010) and Ron Reist (2003) have all added over 400 boxes to their trails.
40 years later… a summary from the 2019 CANMS Annual Report records:
67 teams (88 people) covered a grand total of 4,951 boxes on 1,940 km (1,205 miles) of line which resulted in approximately 5,502 Mountain Bluebirds and 9,849 Tree Swallows being fledged.