A troop of local Boy Scouts has come up with an idea that’s totally for the birds — only in this case, neither the birds nor the appreciative people watching them are likely to mind too much.
With help from the Cullman Master Gardeners, there’s a brand-new “bird garden” taking shape at Sportsman Lake Park, an avian-friendly effort spearheaded by Scout Ethan Rabending. It’s a key component of Rabending’s larger campaign to earn his Eagle badge as a member of Scout Troop 219 (which meets at Cullman’s First United Methodist Church) — but as Rabending and friends proved this past Saturday, not all the bird-wooing work takes place in the great outdoors.
Aimed at creating the kind of habitat that birds flock to by nature, a bird garden is really all about “native plants for native birds,” as Cullman Master Gardener Ben Johnson puts it. As scouts and other volunteers have learned firsthand through months and months of their own sweat equity, it involves clearing an area of invasive plant species and mindfully replacing them with native flora that’s attractive for their feathered fauna counterparts.
Because there’s more to making space for birds than mere manual labor, Troop 219 scouts found themselves raising money last weekend alongside a team of helpful volunteers who attend the Margaret Jean Jones Center for Cullman County’s developmentally disabled. Thanks to an assist from Finders Keepers Antiques Mall, each team set up shop side by side on the store’s sidewalks in downtown Cullman on Saturday, selling bespoke bird-themed arts and crafts to help fund some signage to point Sportsman Lake guests toward the new bird garden — a key component, of course, of any good public amenity.
“All the proceeds we’re raising will go to them to help the garden,” said Melinda Threadgill, who for the past 17 years has helped coordinate volunteer day activities for participants at the center. “We made all of the crafts you see on our table, except for the beautiful figurines you see, which were donated by [local thrift store] Vitoria’s Hope. We hope it helps the scouts, and it’s a great volunteer activity for us.”
The three-acre bird garden is sure to see continued improvement as Rabending and the rest of the scouts follow through with his Eagle Scout project plan. But even before the signs go up, finding the three-acre bird garden shouldn’t be too tough for visitors who’re already in the area: Just look for the gravel path off to the side of the Master Gardener-maintained Wild Flower garden at Sportsman Lake Park … and then listen for the happy sound of chirping.