Bickleton, WA

The Bluebirds of Bickleton

When Jess and Elva Brinkerhoff took their children on a family outing to Bickleton, Wash., 40 years ago, looking for spring wildflowers, little did they imagine what they’d find and where it would lead.

At the time, bluebirds were rare in Bickleton and eastern Washington. Generations of farmers had expanded their fields and cleared dead trees and stumps that bluebirds used for nesting, driving most away from the high desert in search of other nesting sites.

On their family outing, however, the Brinkerhoffs spotted one of these graceful companions of summer. Hoping to encourage it to stay, they rescued a metal coffee can from the local dump to make a rough birdhouse and nailed it to a tree. As they stood by watching, two bluebirds moved right in.

The following spring the Brinkerhoffs returned to Bickleton (pop. 113)—not for flowers, but for bluebirds. Over the winter the couple had built nine bluebird houses, painted them blue and white, and posted them around the area. Much to the delight of the Brinkerhoffs and local residents, birds had returned to fill the houses.

For three decades the Brinkerhoffs built and mounted more than 2,000 wooden bluebird houses in and around Bickleton, covering approximately 150 square miles. Local citizens caught on to the Brinkerhoffs’ efforts and began to help. Their goal was simple: build the houses and the birds will fill them.

In 1987, Lee Wilbur, a schoolteacher in Richland, Wash., almost 100 miles away, was talking to his elementary school class about birdhouses, when one of his fourth-graders, Donald Sorenson, said, “You should talk to my grandpa about birdhouses.” Sorenson was the grandson of Jess Brinkerhoff. Wilbur talked to Brinkerhoff, and his life hasn’t been the same since.

“At the time I met him, Jess was no longer building birdhouses,” Wilbur recalls. “Elva had passed away (in 1985), and it was as though it were time for him to pass the torch on to someone else.”

Wilbur was enamored of the opportunities to teach children about wildlife, habitat, and birds—as well as the hands-on skills of hammering and construction—so, he took up the torch.

“The more we did, the more fun we had,” Wilbur says of his classes’ experience with building the houses. “Most kids didn’t even know where Bickleton was,” he laughs. “It was a good geography lesson, and this was something we could do to give something back to Mother Nature.”

Bickleton volunteers clean and paint or build the houses, preparing them each spring for the return of the thousands of birds for which the small Washington town is their summer address. Farmers, schoolchildren, Boy Scouts, and senior citizens do their part, continuing to build, repair, paint, and post bluebird houses on fence posts, trees, and stumps throughout the area.

Since bluebirds nest two or three times a year, building a new nest each time, the houses must be cleaned out each fall. When the houses are posted, the bluebirds immediately move in, often waiting impatiently for the last nails to be driven and the volunteers to stand back.

Word gets around. Each spring bluebirds return by the thousands, thrilling residents, tourists, children, and visitors with their signature hovering—an insect-hunting technique—their unique song, and the flashes of bright blue feathers, as they flit and fly around town dining on bugs.

The bluebirds of Bickleton are a testament to the vision of one family who chose to make a difference—proof positive that people can not only change their world but can pass along their vision to others.

“It is incredibly rewarding,” Wilbur says. “It was then and it still is.”

Becky Blanton is a freelance writer from Goldendale, Wash.

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