It's that time of year again, folks - songbird time. Flapping thousands of miles from Mexico, the Caribbean, South America and Victoria, braving rain and wind, dodging predators and crop dusters, our mighty little choristers are returning to serenade us for another season.
To honour their epic journeys, the Squamish Estuary Conservation Society is decking the town with songbird banners: windsocks painted by Squamish students and residents.
We have been going into local schools with songbird kits - teaching students about our bird populations and involving them in the Festival's Exterior Decorating Campaign - "Squamish is for the Birds"!
Public windsock painting workshops will be held at Brennan Park on Wednesday (April 28) from 6 to 9:30 p.m. and on Saturday, May 1 from 1 to 4 p.m.
Based on the festival theme "Songbirds are Creatures of Habitat," we are introducing two initiatives to the community.
Via the Great Green Links Project, we hope to involve Squamish residents in a yards and gardens naturescaping program. Folks who would like to create wildlife habitat on their properties will register with us (no obligations) to become one Green Link. We will work with them to build a neighbourhood of many Green Links. This way we hope to restore valuable valley bottom habitat for wildlife and ease the current songbird housing crisis.
The Squamish GreenWays Project is mapping pathways through the community for wildlife. Wildlife needs a safe way, a GreenWay to get to important food sources in the estuary and from one side of the valley to the other. Without them, their survival is threatened. If we don't plan for greenways while we still have them, then we're planning for their loss.
There is a busy festival calendar of events lined up also, starting with Pitch-In at Wilson Slough (west) on Saturday (April 24) from 1 to 4 p.m.
As is only fitting, when welcoming weary, hungry travellers home, we're launching the festival with a little housecleaning. Join us and learn about bird habitat while you're cleaning it up!For more information about our projects and events, check our Songbird Festival brochures and project information displays around town and visit our website at [email protected]. To volunteer for the festival or for more info, please call Nikki at 604-898-4860 or Meg at 604-898-5093.
The Songbird Festival is a celebration of our songbird populations and a forum for exploring ways to keep them singing in the Squamish Valley.
