We hope you are creating a birdhouse to enter in this year’s Birdhouse Competition! Entries are due March 26-31. Here’s a little background information about the competition itself.

The competition began in 1993 when Carol Biddle, the Ogden Nature Center’s development director at the time, wrote a grant to the Utah Arts Council. From the very beginning, the competition has worked to bring together the community and local artists, as well as to provide nesting locations for birds along Birdhouse Trail. The grant, which specified that funds must be matched by community partners, also helped get local businesses get involved. 

Linda Babcock, a dedicated volunteer and former employee of the Ogden Nature Center, has been in charge of the contest and exhibits for 16 of the competition’s 19 years. Linda shared some of her favorite memories from over the years, including a story about one very photogenic bird. “One time I had a Standard Examiner photographer with me taking pictures as we installed the birdhouses. We placed the house, tamped the soil and right as the camera aimed at the house, a little wren flew in, took a look around and popped its face out of the hole to pose.  It was a riot and the photographer couldn't believe it,” said Linda.   She also remembers when her husband successfully built a birdhouse that got a lot of recognition, “My husband built a birdhouse once that won a prize, got purchased and placed in one of the Board member's yards.”

In the last 16 years, Linda has nearly seen it all, but that doesn’t mean she takes each year’s unique entries for granted. She still has a sincere appreciation for the artwork submitted each year. “I think it is so interesting to see what people create given the same parameters.  That is the fun part about participating in this contest/exhibit - every person has their own interpretation and idea and they are so clever.” Linda listed some of the birdhouses that have stood out for her, including “a giant toilet paper roll, a rendition of the Perry's Egyptian Theater, a mystical ceramic lady with a hole in her tummy (it's in the Visitor Center), a lighthouse, and a moss covered house planted with all sorts of beautiful plants.”

No matter what type of birdhouse you plan on building this year remember to enjoy the experience, try to utilize natural resources, and make environmentally friendly, sturdy birdhouses. After all, your creation may be one of the lucky houses to line the Nature Center’s famous Birdhouse Trail and will be one of the first things visitors see when coming to visit! Linda’s advice for builders of all ages is, “Use your imagination, create something sturdy, do a little research, make something that birds can use, and have fun!”

Early Tuesday morning, even though the world was dark, Susan Snyder and I were up -- literally -- with the birds. It was Susan's day of the week to fill the bird feeders at the Ogden Nature Center for the Wasatch Audubon Society, and she was kind enough to let me come along for the adventure.

John Nelson, one of the founding chapter members of the Wasatch Audubon Society, started winter feedings at the Ogden Nature Center in 1983. The goal of these feedings is to ensure that birds living in or around the nature preserve have enough food to get through the winter, since much of their natural surroundings are now used for human purposes.

The seed used in the bird feeders, which are spread throughout the Nature Center, is donated by members of the Wasatch Audubon Society and the society itself. The people who come to feed the birds, volunteer their time and sign up for a day of the week to come out to the Nature Center and feed the birds once a week all winter long. There are even backup volunteers to fill-in when a primary feeder cannot make it.

Susan, who has been a weekly feeder for almost two years now, told me all about the birds we could expect to see at the feeders this time of year. We saw many birds, including the white-crowned sparrow, black-capped chickadee, dark-eyed junco, and America robin. We heard the calls of a chickadee and a pheasant, saw a bevy of California quail, and spotted the tracks of raccoon and deer all along the trial. We also saw three mule deer out early for their breakfast!

After 45 minutes of walking around the beautiful nature preserve, the sun was peeking over the tops of the Wasatch Mountains, and our bags of bird seed were empty. We headed back to the storage barn to return our feeding bags and sign the volunteer sheet saying we had fed the birds that day. Now all we had left to do was watch and wait for the birds to come to the feeders!

For more information about bird watching, Utah's native birds, and the Wasatch chapter of the Audubon Society head to their webpage: http://www.wasatchaudubon.org/. Hope to see you all out here bird-watching with us!

Hi everyone! My name is Whitney Sanchez and I am interning as a blog writer at the Ogden Nature Center. For the next four months I will be posting blogs and keeping you updated on what is going on at this beautiful nature preserve on 12^th Street.

Though my formal relationship with the Nature Center has just begun, my informal relationship began long ago. When I was very young my parents would take my brothers and me to explore at the Nature Center. I still remember going down birdhouse trail, it felt much longer back then, and admiring the beautiful birdhouses people had managed to create. I always wanted to make one, maybe now I will. 

When I was in the first grade I entered an art contest held by the Nature Center and won! I remember painting the trees with my watercolors and being so nervous to submit it. When I won I received a box of cards from the Nature Center that I still have in my memory box.

I have always loved coming to the Nature Center and have volunteered for big events like the Earth Day Celebration. I am looking forward to the opportunity to work closely with the Nature Center staff and learning more about what the center brings to our community. I cannot wait to go on nature walks, to classes, and to learn about the wildlife we have right here in Ogden.

In my personal life I have two dogs and three cats.  I am a senior at Weber State University and will graduate this April with a degree in technical writing and communications. I am looking forward to graduation, but I am also nervous about the changes it will bring.

After graduation I am getting married and moving half-way around the world. My fiancé is in the Navy and we recently received orders to Souda Bay, Greece. We will be leaving around August and are enjoying learning about culture on the island of Crete in preparation for our departure.   But for the next four months, this little tucked away island of open space in Ogden will be my home away from home!