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Birdhouse-Building Clinics Set As Part of Post-Katrina Restoration

Posted on: Sunday, 6 November 2005, 21:00 CST

By Vivian Austin, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

Nov. 5--MOSS POINT -- The first of two birdhouse-building clinics will be conducted today during the Peter Anderson Festival in Ocean Springs.

Mark LaSalle, coastal project director of Audubon Mississippi in Moss Point, said the clinics are part of Operation Backyard Recovery, a project designed to help restore birdhouses and plants lost during Hurricane Katrina. The overall project supports bird populations and promotes the cultivation of native plants.

"Many trees that were home to common backyard birds are gone and our feathered friends are in need of a place to spend the winter," LaSalle said. "Many of our local birds use cavities in living and dead trees, and branches as nesting and roosting sites, especially in winter."

During the free clinics, children and their families will make birdhouses using recycled fencing that was scattered across the Gulf Coast by the hurricane. Mississippi Coast Audubon Society volunteers have pre-cut the pieces and parts so residents can nail them together and take them home to their backyards, LaSalle said.

"We will send residents home with instructions on placing their birdhouses and a guide to identifying common backyard birds," he said.

Audubon volunteers and Ocean Springs students at Keyes Vocational-Technical Center will help children assemble the free birdhouses, which will be located at a booth sponsored by Chevron.

"We made 100 kits and we hope to give them all away," LaSalle said Friday. Another 100 will be available at a clinic next week in Moss Point, he said.

LaSalle said residents are encouraged to help Mississippi Audubon and Mississippi Coast Audubon Society study the impact Katrina had on the bird population in South Mississippi and the Gulf Coast. LaSalle said residents are being asked to participate in the annual Great Backyard Bird Count in February.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.)

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