In blue hat and blue shirt, 80-year-old Dick Purvis observes bluebirds hovering near the boxes he has placed in trees at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley. Purvis and a large group of volunteers are placing boxes in trees throughout Orange County to help repopulate the birds. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
A bluebird approaches a nesting box in a pine tree at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley, placed there by 80-year-old- Dick Purvis and his posse of volunteers. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Bluebird chicks stretch out to receive food in their nest at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Purvis examines an abandoned bluebird nest found in one of his bird boxes at Mile Square Park. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Bluebird eggs inside an abandoned nest at Mile Square Park. Volunteers check nest boxes weekly, counting eggs and chicks and removing dead birds. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Dick Purvis knew years ago that if he was going to bring bluebirds to Orange County, the county would need more holes. The retired electrical engineer bolsters the area’s bluebird population by placing nesting boxes in tall trees like the ones in Fountain Valley’s Mile Square Park. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
