About Us

Western Bluebird fledglings. Photo: Jerry James

Founded in 1994, supported by National Audubon Society-California and affiliated with the North American Bluebird Society, The California Bluebird Recovery Program (CBRP) is “for the encouragement and conservation of cavity-nesters—especially bluebirds—anywhere in the West.”  We are pleased to acknowledge the support of the Mt. Diablo Bird Alliance, Walnut Creek.

The California Bluebird Recovery Program was founded in 1994 by Don Yoder.  Read his letter announcing the formation of CBRP. The background and aims of the California Bluebird Recovery Program are described in Don Yoder’s flyer.

Don Yoder, Founder

Aims

Board of Directors

Dick Blaine, Program Director Emeritus 

Since retiring Dick has become an avid bicyclist and bird watcher. His background is techinical with emphasis on computers. He participates with local, state wide and national environmental, bicycling, birding, ham radio and civic organizations. In recent years he has been volunteering to help several of these organizations with their data processing needs.  Dick started participating in the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society’s Cavity Nesting Recovery Program (CNRP) in the late 1990’s and monitored the McClellan Ranch Park trail for ten years.

He worked with the Santa Clara county coordinator to computerize data collection for Santa Clara County and then created the first CBRP web site in 2006. This web site was rewritten in 2020. When the founder of the California Bluebird Recovery Program, Don Yoder, retired in 2007 Dick took over as CBRP Director. He worked with a database programmer to develop an interactive, on-line data base for data collection and later created the current Google Drive based data collection spreadsheet. Dick continues to monitor home-based nest boxes.

Georgette

Georgette Howington, Co-Program Director

Georgette has been a nest box monitor with the California Bluebird Recovery Program for 24 years. She currently serves as the CBRP Co-Program Director. Georgette regularly stages community exhibits, and is a frequent speaker on conservation topics. Additionally, she works with Eagle Scout candidates and provides new monitor’s personal coaching. 

As a conservationist in the SF East Bay Area, for over thirty years, she’s been a contributing member and or supporter of organizations such as California Garden Clubs (Life Member), Mt. Diablo Bird Alliance, Raptors Are The Solution, and various Land Trusts, among others. Georgette is a Horticulturist and certified as a UC Davis Naturalist of the Mt. Diablo Region, and a published writer and poet. She lives with her husband Bruce, and their cats, Hermie & Rayna.

Mike-7.12.21

Mike Azevedo, Co-Program Director

Mike Azevedo has been the County Coordinator for Santa Clara County with the California Bluebird Recovery Program since 2009.  Mike has been a Science Camp naturalist, park ranger and merit badge counselor for nature related merit badges for years.  Mike is compiler of the San Jose Audubon Christmas Bird Count and has worked with Santa Clara Audubon Society closely since becoming involved. 

Mike is working with Sequoia Audubon Society on a project to save the Western Purple Martin, a species of special concern that is battling habitat loss, deadly competition with the introduced European starling and food source crash due to the rampant use of neonicotinoid pesticides.  Together with Georgette Howington, Mike is an editor of the CBRP Facebook Page and is currently working on books and videos encouraging the use of native plants and nest boxes and habitat improvement in general.

Lesley Handa, Board Member

Lesley has been the County Coordinator for San Diego County since 2023. She is an ornithologist and geographer who is passionate about the conservation of birds and habitats. She has invested time studying the unique composition of biodiversity and habitats in the San Diego region through participation in animal surveys, monitoring efforts, and habitat restoration, and strongly believes there is much to conserve across the State of California.

Lesley is active with the San Diego Bird Alliance serving as the Lead Ornithologist, and a member of the Conservation Committee. She also serves as a board member of the Friends of Famosa Slough and is a Co-lead for the San Diego Chapter for the Society for Conservation GIS. She holds a BS in Biology, a BA in English, and an MS in GIScience. Lesley was awarded the 2020-21 top honor Parks and Recreation Champion Award for the County of San Diego in recognition of her outstanding contributions to local parks, preserves, and community programs across the county.

Ronnie Eaton

Ronnie Eaton, Board Member

Ronnie Eaton’s first trail as a nest box monitor in 2018 was established in San Mateo County by Howard Rathlesberger, one of CBRP’s earliest volunteers. Since then, she’s become the County Coordinator for San Mateo County Bird Alliance and the California Bluebird Recovery Program.  Ronnie enjoys training and working with new monitors, as well as educating the public about birds and the challenges they face.  She also monitors three trails in San Mateo County and is a Board Member for the CBRP.

Ronnie graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in Biology, with a concentration in Botany and Plant Ecology. After graduating, she worked for the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in the Dutch Elm Disease and Pine Pitch Canker programs. She then joined the San Mateo County Department of Agriculture where she worked for four years as a Biologist/Standards Specialist. She then joined the Alameda County Department of Agriculture where she worked for 24 years, first as a Biologist, then as a Deputy Agricultural Commissioner, managing the Pest Exclusion and Quarantine Programs for the department.

Ronnie enjoys native plant propagation, landscaping and gardening with native plants, and annually serves as a docent on native plant tours. She is an active member of the California Native Plant Society, San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory, Peninsula Open Space Trust, and Sempervirens Fund.

She also volunteers with Mid Peninsula Open Space District as a Land Steward in their invasive plant management program. Ronnie’s an equestrian, animal lover and environmentalist, and enjoys riding, bird watching, hiking, cooking, music and art and spending time with her husband and two cats.

Bill Wallace

Bill Wallace, Board Member

Bill Wallace’s first trail along with his wife Inge as a nest box monitor was established in Orange County by Susan Bulger one of the Southern California Bluebird Clubs (SCBC) early volunteers. They met one day at Clark Park in Fullerton and made the mistake of asking Susan what she was doing? One thing led to another, and they inherited her trail! Since then, Bill has become the President of the SCBC. As President of the SCBC, the club has expanded to monitor more than 2300 nest boxes by some 50+ dedicated monitors.

Bill graduated from Fullerton College in 1961 with a degree in Industrial Technology. Upon graduation he worked for 11 years on the Apollo Moon Program at North American Aviation (NAA) in Downey California. Upon leaving NAA he spent the remainder of his career at Hoffman Video Systems (HVS) in the Los Angeles area. He was hired as Service Manager later becoming a Salesman for HVS until his retirement in 1998. As a salesman he was responsible for the design and installation of Large Screen Audio/Visual Display Systems for Business, Education and the Military. His clients included banks, colleges and military faculties across the Western USA. The last system he sold was installed at Vandenberg AFB for the National Security Agency (NSA), which was highlighted in an episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes.

Upon retirement he became a volunteer at the Fullerton Arboretum and later a Board Member until recently becoming a Board Member-Emeritus. He was involved in the ongoing development of their 26-acre facility and their receipt of an ARBNET IV certification one of only three Arboretum in California to receive this designation.