Yarmouthport, MA
Living on Cape Cod has advantages galore! One of the things I love about this crazy peninsula is that it often feels like one big small town. We are all so very connected. When volunteering at a fundraising event at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, I was fortunate to meet an enthusiastic bird-loving family. Turns out this family runs a local camp, Camp Wingate*Kirkland. We got to talking and well... lucky me...I get to work at this camp with some amazing campers, sharing the love and knowledge of the birds all along the way! I will be visiting Camp W*K as often as my schedule permits and on these first two morning visits, I had some of the campers painting nest boxes.
When painting, I do my best to recycle materials, not only to save money, but also to reduce the need for alternative supplies. I use plastic egg crates that formerly housed happy eggs from happy free range chickens. I know it sounds odd to say, but chickens are birds too. We humans happen to have chosen them to be greatly involved in our own food chain. It's nice to know that there are chicken farmers who do take great care in raising happy & healthy birds. So the palattes for the paint are egg crates, the cups for water used to have yogurt or applesauce, or Italian ice in them. I feel strongly mentioning all of this to the painters. It's good to keep materials to re-use. WE ALL ARE so connected, a mindful thought...it's not just Cape Cod after all.
Many of the beautifully painted nest boxes will be finding homes themselves on certain camp trees &/or posts so that the birds who live in & around Camp W*K will be sheltered and appreciated on a whole other level. Great job Bird Nerds! (double click photos to enlarge)
Using former egg crates for paint palattes
Happy messy paint hands
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