Search hannaherald.com
Hanna Herald
Share this Story: Bluebird enthusiast up for award
Bluebird enthusiast up for award
Jackie Irwin
Paulette Murray, who takes photos of all things fowl, nominated Snell for the Blue Feather Award, an award given out by the Ellis Bird Farm to an Alberta bluebird trail operator who has made a significant contribution to bluebird conservation in Alberta. Photo by Snell family photo /jpg, HA
Clarke Snell has always loved birds, so much so that he began designing boxes for their nests.
Snell said he got into the hobby of bird watching when he used to eat his lunch by the lake in Manitoba.
"I noticed the bird boxes and the bluebirds that would come to them," he said.
"Being an amateur birder I was intrigued."
From there it was a slippery slope into the deeper world of birds.
"The more I learned, the more interested I became," he said.
When a fellow birder asked him to take over her bluebird line he was drawn into the regional bluebird group.
That led to him designing and making his own boxes for his feathered friends.
"In the 1950s and 1960's the bluebirds were considered an endangered bird because of their loss of nesting habitats," Snell said.
"Through the efforts of a man called Jack Lane in Manitoba and then also the Ellis family in Lacombe there was a movement to provide nesting boxes for the bluebirds," Snell added.
"They are a beautiful songbird with an azure blue colour.
"Sometimes people mistake the blue jay for a bluebird or they think that a tree swallow is a bluebird," he said.
"But nothing compares to the beauty of a bluebird," he added.
When he moved to Hanna Snell began his own bluebird line, which requires more care than the average person might think, because the boxes have to be cleaned out before each nesting season.
"Bluebirds like to make a new nest each year," Snell explained.
"Although they do sometimes have two hatches in the same nest," he added.
HE said it's impossible to know if they return to the same boxes year after year as "they don't come with nametags."
"I believe it is the same nesting pair that returns," he mused.
"But it could be that it is a prime location for nesting as well," he added.
Snell's efforts have not gone unnoticed by other local birders as Paulette Murray, who takes photos of all things fowl, nominated Snell for the Blue Feather Award, an award given out by the Ellis Bird Farm to an Alberta bluebird trail operator who has made a significant contribution to bluebird conservation in Alberta.
When he learned she had nominated him Snell said he was humbled.
"I am just doing one small part to help, and it has been my passion," he said.
"To be nominated by another exceptional birder is a real honour," he added.
Bluebird enthusiast up for award Back to video
News Near Hanna
Follow the Hanna Herald
© 2021 Hanna Herald, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited.