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Wednesday, April 15, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Tales from a
Sisters
Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
Homes for
birds, bats, and
butterflies
It9s spring and cavity-
nesting birds are looking
for homes to raise babies in.
In last week9s Nugget, Jodi
Schneider offered a wonder-
ful birdwatching piece, and
suggested you build them
homes.
OK, here9s how to do it.
Head out to the nearest
housing construction proj-
ect, and if they9re using ply-
wood (not particle board),
ask the builders to put their
rems (wood remnants) aside
in a pile and when the job9s
done, go by with a box of
donuts, give it to the build-
ers, bring the plywood home
and start building birdhouse
nesting boxes.
(I have been building
nesting boxes for well over
40 years, and in that period
of time I have never had a
builder say no, and some/
most of them have been kind
enough to help me load the
rems into my pickup).
This is not only a good
way to recycle the excess
wood, but your opportunity
to really put your personal
effort into supplying a much
Sisters
salutes...
" Sisters School District
sent out a thank you out
to Ray9s Food Place for
donating grocery bags for
material pickups for all
three schools last week
(see story, page 1). Gary
Thorson of SSD said,
<They were a huge help
this past week.=
" The community of
Sisters owes a tip of the
hat to all the workers in
the grocery and sundries
marketplace, the pharma-
cists, the people pumping
gas 4 all those who have
worked so hard over the
past several weeks to keep
shelves stocked and essen-
tial services and goods
coming to the folks who
live here. They have more
exposure than most of the
rest of us, and they keep
showing up 4 and keep
everyone9s spirits up, too.
needed portion of wild-
life habitat that has gone
missing.
Back in the 1950s and
960s, the logging/forestry
industry took it upon them-
selves to become forest
fire rangers and denounced
all the dead standing trees
(snags) in the forest as
lightning rods and removed
them. That was the begin-
ning of the end for cavity-
nesters. What really fin-
ished off snags back in those
<good old days= was when
Brooks-Scanlon in Bend
started milling and selling
<Brooks Wood,= beautiful
multi-colored pine boards
cut from snags.
The U.S. Forest Service
made a huge attempt to right
the wrong with the <Wildlife
Tree= project in which the
folks in federal prisons made
four- by 4-inch aluminum
wildlife signs that wildlife
biologists placed on stand-
ing snags announcing them
to be absolutely essential as
nesting habitat for wildlife
and warning: <Do Not Cut!=
In fact, back in the 970s
when I was working for the
USFS, one of my jobs was
walking portions of timber
sales searching out appropri-
ate snags and placing wild-
life signs on them to ensure
they9d be saved for cavity-
nesters. And you know, not
too many years back I was
driving past one of the old
sales and sure enough, those
wildlife trees were still
standing and doing what
they were supposed to do.
Anyway& the vanishing
of cavity nesting substrate
also increased when the
steel fence posts appeared
on the market. All those
old wooden fence posts that
woodpeckers pounded holes
into were gone and one
bird in particular, the east-
ern bluebird, almost went
extinct because of it.
What saved them was
the nesting box builders
from the Atlantic to the
Mississippi river who gave
them homes.
There9s nothing like hav-
ing a bluebird nesting box in
your backyard 4 unless you
have an outdoor cat 4 then
forget it, or put a bird-be-
safe collar on it. A swallow
nesting box will be a wel-
come asset if you live near
a mosquito-producing body
of water. You can also put
up a bat shelter and have
bats fluttering about at night
helping with the mosquito-
reduction business.
It would also be cool
to see if butterfly shelters
work; California tortoise
shells (which I find in my
wood pile) and mourning
cloaks winter over as adults
and are always looking for
a safe place to spend those
cold times.
If you live in Camp
Sherman, put up a nesting
box for a northern pygmy
PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON
Look out world, here I come! Nestling American kestrel about to fledge.
Nesting box by Don McCartney.
owl 4 you9ll have a won-
derful opportunity for one to
move in and positively ruin
your afternoon nap with all
their tooting. Those ambi-
tious little owls are capable
of catching, killing and eat-
ing pine squirrels and other
critters that size.
Building and erecting
nesting boxes is a great way
to help wildlife prosper, and
for you to have the satisfac-
tion of seeing your handi-
work create immediate and
long-lasting positive results.
To get plans, email me
(jimnaturalist@gmail.com)
for the pdf digital version.
Now get busy!
Gypsy
Wind
Clothing
Good News in Tough Times…
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We are working hard at getting the new space ready
for our unveiling and will reopen as soon as possible!
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