A hole lotta love for the Western bluebird in O.C.

What began as one man's hobby in 1984 has grown to the 200-member Southern California Bluebird Club, which lovingly creates and distributes the right-size nesting box so the bluebird species can thrive like never before in Orange County.

The Times' Marc Olson reports:

Dick Purvis knew that if he was going to bring bluebirds to Orange County, the county would need more holes.

Bluebirds, he explained, require them for nesting, and there aren't many trees with holes in the county's developed recreational areas. If you find one, he said, "the ranger will come and cut it down."

So Purvis, 80, a bird lover since his boyhood in North Georgia, set out to bolster the area's bluebird population by placing nest boxes in parks and golf courses.

What prompted Purvis, pictured below examining an abandoned bluebird nest, to become the bluebird's best friend in Southern California?

"When I was a boy I lived on a farm," Purvis recalled. "All the farmers had bluebird boxes."

One day while picnicking at O'Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon, he said, "I saw a pair of bluebirds in a sycamore tree and thought, 'Holy cow, we could have that in Orange County!' "

The Southern California Bluebird Club's efforts last year added more than 5,000 members of the species to the skies of Orange County, making it the state's most prolific bluebird haven, Olson writes.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo credits: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times