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Wednesday, January 13, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Berry-bearing shrubs
to feed birds in winter
By Kym Pokorny
OSU Extension Service
CORVALLIS – When
winter comes and the menu
for birds shrinks in urban
backyards, they rely on the
kindness of humans.
That doesn’t mean just a
bird feeder of seeds and nuts.
“Different birds are
attracted to different foods,
and it’s good to have a vari-
ety,” said Dana Sanchez, a
wildlife specialist for Oregon
State University’s Extension
Service. “In addition to bird
feeders, which people some-
times forget to fill, they need
plants to forage on.”
This time of year, you’ll
notice winter wrens, pine sis-
kins, scrub jays, chickadees
and robins. All are search-
ing for food to give them the
energy they need to survive
the prolonged stress of cold
and wet weather.
“Birds need a lot of
energy to make it through
cold nights,” according to
Sanchez. “They can’t eat dur-
ing the night and they burn
off whatever food calories
they found during the day.”
Fortunately, birds have
feathers – the ultimate down
jacket, she said. They fluff
them and huddle together to
reduce heat loss. And shiver-
ing keeps muscles warmer.
For all that, they still need
the right foods for energy
production. A few insects
remain, flying around or
CLARIFICATIOn
Speak Your Peace spokes-
man Rob Karwath will
speak in the last part of the
Sisters Kiwanis meeting on
Thursday. Sisters Kiwanis
Club will meet at 7 a.m. at
hiding under moss and lichen
ripe for the picking. Some
plants, like thistle, hold on to
seeds that birds fit into their
diet. Plants with berries full
of good fat provide neces-
sary nutrients, too. Take a
look at Sanchez’s sugges-
tions and consider adding
some berry bearers to your
garden.
Dana Sanchez’s picks for
plants with berries for birds:
Oregon grape (Mahonia
aquifolium) breaks out in
brilliant yellow flowers in
mid-winter that leave behind
bunches of blue-black ber-
ries. The state flower of Ore-
gon grows to an erect 6 feet
tall and 5 feet wide. Hardy to
Zone 5.
Snowberry (Symphoricar-
pos albus) is recognized for
distinctive clusters of white
berries that last well into
winter. At 5 feet tall and 6
feet wide and rather rangy,
snowberry makes a great
choice for a bird-friendly
hedgerow and its vigorous
roots will help with erosion
control on slopes. Hardy to
Zone 3.
Pacific wax myrtle
(Myrica californica) is an
evergreen that grows up to
30 feet at maturity, making it
a popular option for a screen
or small tree in the garden.
A Pacific Northwest native,
wax myrtle presents purplish
berries in fall that persist into
the winter months. Hardy to
Zone 7.
Aspen Lakes Lodge. The
meeting is from 7 to 8:30 a.m.
and the speaker will be dur-
ing the last half-hour. Anyone
wishing to attend may
RSVP to Kiwanis program
coordinator Jim Horsley at
jimhorsley4@gmail.com.
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Teacher releases original music
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
Rick Johnson makes his
living inspiring students to
sing. Now the Americana
Project and choir teacher has
been inspired by those same
students to create his own
original songs, released this
month on the CD “All That
Matters.”
The new CD features 18
original songs penned by
Johnson, accompanying him-
self on guitar or ukulele, with
harmony vocals by his wife
Tara.
“It just evolved organi-
cally,” Johnson told The
Nugget. “I spend a lot of my
summer up in the mountains
and I bring my guitar with
me and just let the music
come through me. I think
the songs reflect how much I
appreciate my family and the
place where I live.”
Indeed, the songs extol
the simple life and love of
family, which includes two-
and-half-year-old Collier.
The youngest member
of the Johnson family is
already picking up the music
bug, playing his ukulele and
drumming on a mini-cajon (a
box drum) with his dad in the
evenings.
“We even sampled my son
saying ‘ukulele’ and slapped
it on the end of one of the
songs,” Johnson said.
Johnson recorded the CD
himself in his home studio.
The teacher has an
extensive background in
musical theater — which
mean s h is accu sto med
singing voice is “big” and
stagy. That wouldn’t do for
straightforward songs with
solo acoustic accompani-
ment. He had to change his
approach.
“That was one of the hur-
dles in making the CD,” he
acknowledged. “It’s really
about the story. It’s really
about the lyrics. It’s about
photo by tara JohnSon
Collier is following in his dad, Rick Johnson’s, footsteps.
getting across the meaning of
the song.”
This is Johnson’s first
writing endeavor in many
years. His music theater and
teaching careers are a long
interlude between songwrit-
ing efforts, which started
when he wrote lyrics for his
high school thrash-metal
band.
He’s a long way down
the road from those days. He
credits the influence of the
Sisters Folk Festival and his
Americana Project students
with inspiring him to pick
up the guitar and get back to
writing, with a whole life’s
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from.
“To be inspired by that
on a daily basis pushed me
to taking the serious steps to
writing and carrying a guitar
with me every day,” Johnson
said.
Though he is busy with
his music-teaching day job
and a young family, Johnson
plans to be booking local
gigs to get his new music out
into the community. All That
Matters is available locally
at Paulina Springs Books.
For more information visit
Johnson’s Facebook page,
Rick Johnson Songs.
541-548-2899
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