10 Winter 2012 Applegater
BIRDMAN
Friends on feeders
BY TED A. GLOVER
With winter season in full swing it
seems as though it’s even more fun to sit
in our warm house and look out our big
picture window and watch all the activity
at our bird feeders. Food is getting scarcer
now for our little feathered friends, so more
and more of them rely on bird feeders for
extra nourishment.
There is a regular assortment of birds
that visit every day. These include large
Photos, left to right: Red-breasted nuthatch, which has a call like a tin trumpet. Photo by Dave
Menke, USFWS. White-breasted nuthatch. Has more young, but is shorter-lived than the red-
breasted nuthatch. Photo by David Brenzinski, USFWS. Source: wikipedia.com.
groups of dark-eyed juncos, often called
“Oregon” juncos, plus mourning doves,
Steller’s jays, red-breasted and white-
breasted nuthatches, and a small flock of
wild turkeys, whose voracious appetite and
constant scratching in the ground make for
quite a spectacle.
Although juncos are year-round
visitors to our yard, we see lots more in the
winter months as they migrate down from
their boreal breeding grounds. Studies of
these little dark-headed guys show that
the ones you see in your yard this year are
likely the same ones you saw last year, as
they tend to return to the same place each
year. You may see as many as 30 or 40
together foraging on the ground from early
morning and through the day until just
before sunset when they disperse to roost
in trees and shrubs nearby. They are fun
to watch as they raise their tails and flash
their white outer feathers when alarmed,
heading for the nearest safe place.
Other visitors
we are watching
this winter include
the spotted towhee,
larger than the
juncos, with a dark
hood and rufous
Ted A. Glover
sides and lots of
white spots on its wings and sides. We like
to watch our sunflower seed feeders to pick
out the three species of chickadees that visit
this time of year. The regular black-capped
chickadee comes through the yard several
times a day, but every once in a while we
see a chestnut-backed and even a mountain
chickadee traveling with them.
And even in winter we don’t forget to
keep our hummingbird feeders clean and
full. The Anna’s hummingbirds are regular
visitors all winter long.
Ted A. Glover
541-846-0681
tedglover9@gmail.com
Volunteers are the heartbeat of Sanctuary One
BY DELLA mERRILL
At Sanctuary One volunteers are the
heartbeat of the farm. Folks come from
the far reaches of Jackson and Josephine
Counties, from the other side of the
country, from points in California and
beyond. They come as groups, families,
or individuals. Most are motivated by
the animals in our care and are willing to
participate in any way that’s needed. They
are folks of all ages (including Gabe, who
informed me he is six and three-quarters),
who come from all walks of life and all
political perspectives.
They come to muck pastures, clean
dog pens and empty cat boxes, and to
walk old Jack Russell terriers and puppy
pit bulls. They wash windows, do laundry,
groom horses, hang with the cats, scratch
the pigs, sheet mulch the garden, build
rock walls, pull weeds, lead public tours
and school groups, walk the labyrinth, and
much, much more.
Why do they come? Why do they
choose to drive 45 miles one way to give
freely of their time and energy? Why
do they choose to spend their Saturday
mornings or afternoons cleaning up poop
left by a young dog not yet housebroken,
or breaking ice on the water troughs for
the horses and other farm animals, or
showing up at 7:30 in the morning when
temperatures are below 20 degrees, or
spending their one-week vacation to work
every day helping us?
I decided to ask a few of them so I
could understand.
Brian, a resident of Ruch, volunteers
every Thursday. He’s self-employed. Work
is slow and, with time on his hands, he
wanted to do something productive. “I
started volunteering because of a desire
to be of service, to give something back.”
Niti is from San Jose and arrived the
day after Christmas to volunteer during
her one week of vacation. “I decided from
now on I want to spend my vacations doing
something meaningful.”
Chad, a Medford small-business
owner, allows his employees one paid
day a week to volunteer at a nonprofit
of their choice. They have chosen
Sanctuary One. “It’s a kind of pay-it-
forward idea. The happier employees
are, the more productive they’ll be, and
everyone wins,” says Chad. “And actually,
I’m not sure who’s helping who more.”
Meghan, one of Chad’s employees, is
a contact manager and spends the majority
of her work hours at the computer. She
says of volunteering: “It’s the perfect
complement to my job.”
Several families make a point of
coming out on a regular basis. “We started
coming out because our daughter needed
community service time for high school,”
says Rich, who volunteers with his wife
and daughter every Saturday. “It’s a great
reason to unplug from the home and
come out and commune with nature. The
animals are kind of like the toys on Misfit
Island; one missing a leg, most of them
unwanted. This is their second chance,
and I bet everyone who volunteers here
gets back way more than they give. It has
been such a blessing for our family.”
There’s a lot of talk, articles and
research about the therapeutic benefits
of care farming: working, loving and
playing with animals, digging in the dirt
and moving 75-pound bales of hay. But
I’ve always wondered how something could
be therapeutic when there was no therapist
around to facilitate the experience. Well,
what I’m learning is that there is a therapist
at the farm. In fact, there are many, and
they come in many forms.
Take Lilly the cat, for example. Lilly
arrived with barely any hair, skinny and
timid. But with time, gentle handling and
good food, she has emerged as a robust,
beautiful, trusting cat.
Another example is the 500-pound
bag of peanut skins donated by a local
peanut company. Four Lithia Springs
teens, working as a team, managed to tip
the bag over in order to spill the skins so
we could spread them on the garden.
We live in uncertain times and it’s
often difficult to find reasons for hope. But
after a day at the farm, working alongside
volunteers, seeing their smiles, listening to
their stories of a tender, delightful, loving
moment, I can’t help but have hope.
As Rich said, “We get a great
connection from the land and the animals.
It’s nice, really, really, nice.”
Della Merrill
541-858-3304
General Manager
Sanctuary One
Photos, left to right: Volunteers Gabe, six and a half years old; Chad, a Medford business owner; and Meghan, with Lisa and Lulu.
