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Photo © Keith Williams
Photo © David Freeman

Who Is Jill Freeman?

Sometimes we hear about NestWatchers who are doing an epic amount of monitoring—and it’s usually someone who has asked for very little or no credit. Jill Freeman of Colorado is one of those people, so when we heard about her, we knew we had to feature her with a short Q&A. Here it is:

Q: How long have you been volunteering with the Colorado Bluebird Project?
I have been involved with CBP since its inception, both as a member of the committee, and as the first appointed chair of the project. When we started receiving data sheets from other trail monitors from around the state, it just seemed appropriate that I do that data entry for CBP, and since I was already doing the data entry for my own project, and was familiar with the NestWatch program, I just thought that it made sense for me to do CBP’s, too.

I also volunteer at the Cherokee Ranch and Castle Foundation (CRCF). I took over as Project Director of the Bluebird Nest Box Project in 2000. We have 200 boxes spread out over five trails, with a total of 10 volunteer monitors, myself included.

Q: How many nest attempts have you submitted on behalf of these two projects?
In the 2014 season I posted 550 nest attempts to NestWatch: 331 for CBP and 219 for CRCF.

Q: What motivates you to volunteer your time?
I love doing this work, both the monitoring, keeping the projects running, working with my monitor volunteers (which are all absolutely great—a special breed apart), and the data entry part. I enjoy seeing the broader picture emerging as the data entry begins to reveal the successes and/or struggles from other parts of the state.

Q: What advice do you have for anyone who is struggling with data entry?
I would encourage anyone that wishes to do their own data entry, and are struggling with it, or have any other problems with their trails, to contact us (CBP, their local chapter, or NestWatch HQ), because we are all here to help them with every step of the whole process.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Cornell Lab of Ornithology