Making Birdhouses with Young Naturalists was the highlight of our weekend. Every year – 56 to be exact – time is spent constructing birdhouses during National Wildlife Week. This program was only $5 (to cover materials) and at the end of the event you can either take your birdhouse home or you can donate it to be used on the Mary Houston Bluebird Trail. This is an opportunity for kids to learn how to make their own birdhouse and to learn a little more about the types of birds that live in birdhouses. They had all the materials needed but we did bring our hammers and some brought eye protection. They had some to borrow as well.
Greg from Saskatoon Nature Society
They started with an introduction and some information about upcoming events. They have many family-themed events people can take part in from a crocus walk to butterflies to walks along Mary Houston Bluebird Trail to check out the birds. He also showed us step by step what we could expect as we built the houses. Luckily, they also had paper copies of the instructions.
Grateful for help.
I sometimes think I’m pretty good at constructing things. I don’t do a lot of it but I enjoy building. It turns out, my brain was not in the correct place on this day (I was fighting a cold). We made a few mistakes and put a few things on incorrectly. Luckily, there were three helpers walking around and ready to step in when we needed help. They were all very kind to us and showed us how it could be fixed.
More help.
We were building the birdhouses at the Affinity Learning Centre located in the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park and Zoo and Saskatoon Zoo Society and Saskatoon Nature Society were putting on the workshop. We were grateful to have help at the end of the workshop with putting on the roof. They made the roof so you can take it off and check to see if it has a nest inside (and even better eggs.) They aren’t meant to be checked all the time because the birds won’t like that but we can sneak a peek every once in a while.
Finished Product.
My son chose to bring the birdhouse home. We having it hanging outside on a tree under his window so he can check on it every once in a while. He had a blast learning how to make it and even though it wasn’t perfect, we love it. Even better, we followed up our workshop with a walk around the zoo. We are looking forward to signing up to more events in the future.
