The boxes hanging over the park roads of Antietam National Battlefield are supposed to be life saving boxes for blue birds. Actually these boxes are positioned at the 100-yard intervals along the road, and due to these boxes, visitors can see one, two, or may be a bunch of bluebirds during their journey. No doubt, these boxes are lifeline for the bluebirds.
It is said that Mark and Jean Raabe are the people who have placed these boxes for the birds and they are about 100 in number. Besides, they are generally checked by Rabees once a week. It is said that he checks these boxes from March to November to ensure safety of the birds and they are replaced after every 5 or 6 years for better nesting.
Lilga and her husband said in their statement that people should help Raabes for maintaining the boxes and it is assumed that more than 9000 blue birds have successfully fledged from the boxes. It goes without saying, Raabes is also a charter member of bluebird society since 1978 and trying his best to provide comfortable man-made nest to blue birds.
Apart from this, both Mark and Raabes have done more than feeding the birds. Raabes own cabin in the Horseshoe Bend development on Burnside Bridge Road and has been studying the reasons of bluebird declining since a long time. Exactly, Dr. Larry Zeleny, a famous retired government scientist was the mentor of Raabes and helped him to learn more about the bird birds. Following his footsteps, Raabes did the same like his master and started growing movement of citizen scientists.
Last but not the least, both Mark and Raabes hold the opinion that English Sparrows are the threats to the eggs of Bluebirds and they have killed a big number of bluebirds eggs. Lastly, bluebird’s eggs usually take 12 to 15 days to hatch and young birds need 16 to 18 days to leave the nest.