The nature organization was on hand for the installation of a new purple martin birdhouse in Spring Creek park on Thursday morning, with the house sitting on top of a 10-foot pole alongside the walking path between 10th Avenue and 11th Avenue on Laurier Street.
The house was the second one in the park built by MJWF member Al Dailey, who was on-site for the installation by a crew from the City of Moose Jaw.
“It’s nice down here in the summertime when all the leaves are out, a lot of people ride their bikes or go for a walk down here and the birds make it really nice,” Dailey said when visiting the site on Thursday afternoon. “A lot of people use the path and with the water down there, the birds eat mosquitoes, so it helps with that, too.”
There are four birdhouses in Spring Creek, and it doesn’t take long for the critters to figure out they’re welcome in their new homes -- despite having only been in place for a few hours, the newest addition already had a steady stream of birds visiting their new digs.
That’s exactly what Dailey and his compatriots like to see.
“It’s more important every day, because songbirds, you look at the statistics, all kinds of songbirds are dying off with habitat loss and poisons and chemicals and all that sort of thing,” he said. “This will attract more birds and hopefully the right ones.”
The project doesn’t end there. The Wildlife Federation hopes to install more birdhouses in parks throughout the city in the future -- including Happy Valley and the new park at the old hospital site -- to offer even more shelter and safety to our avian friends.
“Anything that helps, we’ll try and do,” Dailey said.
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