Some may beg to differ, though I like to believe that the show Portlandia is pretty dead on to the persona of Portland. Exaggerated, but accurate. Of all of the skits, the famed line “Put a bird on it,” a tactic to make any mundane item marketable by slapping a bird silhouette on it, rings truest.
On my second excursion to Portland I got to indulge in this fervor for birds in the Tualitin National Wildlife Refuge Bird Festival. A week after hosting our own IMBD event on the coast, it was a lot of fun and eye-opening to see how another region expresses their love of birds, display their conservation efforts, and conduct outreach to the public. The event was open to the general public, though there was a concerted effort to invite the Latino community to join the festivities. The coordinator reached out to Meagan, Stephanie, and me with suggestions on how to do this, and shared some notes on their communications tactics. The result was a feature on Spanish-language news stations, like Univision, and newspapers. Being at the event, I would say their efforts paid off: the event’s audience was highly diverse, with participants of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities strolling from the arts-and-crafts station, the nature trails, and the science displays. I was helping as a Spanish-language interpreter at a station on riverine mammals and had several opportunities to practice my Spanish, and simply chat with the public about cool birds they could see in the refuge.
My favorite visitors were a little boy and girl, brother and sister, who were fascinated with a Chickadee. I took a short walk with them down the trail and lent them my binoculars, explaining why the Chickadee sings, and how they can tell it’s a Chickadee. The two were so enveloped in birding that the parents had to jokingly convince them with promises of food to peel them away! It was lovely to see children from the city connect with nature in a way they never thought was possible. A selfish part of me hopes that their curiosity for the world continues into a career in science! One can dream, though surely with the efforts of entities like the Tualitin Wildlife Refuge of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service urban residents of the Portland area will have plenty of opportunities to dive deeper into the world of biology.
For now, putting a bird on it is definitely a great start!
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- The path at the Tualitin Wildlife Refuge led to an array of activities, like my Beaver station, an archery game, a bird banding demonstration, and interactive games related to fisheries.
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- Needless to say, I was a little obsessed with this human-sized Eagle nest. As I was taking a break to go eat, I wandered into a little trail which led into an open meadow. To my surprise, I found this treasure. The display invites visitors to hop inside and get a sense of what it’s like to be a bird in a nest. I couldn’t resist the temptation and took my shot at being an Eaglet.
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- Also discovered in one of the paths: a fisheries display! This particular jewel shows off the life cycle of a frog. The table had several other boxes with the life cycles of fish and amphibians found in the refuge, and a demonstration on how samples are collected.
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- Beaver, nutria, and river otters–oh my! This was my station at the event. For the first hour, I was in the company of a USFWS staff who works with mammals in the refuge. It was fascinating to learn about the natural history of these animals, particularly the invasive species of Nutria. I’ve actually seen this animal in it’s country of origin, Argentina, and had no idea it was present here in the US, let alone how much of a nuisance it is! The nutria was brought over as a substitute fur for beavers and released into the wild. Now it burrows into the banks of streams and under the foundations of houses, and takes up the habitat of beavers and otters. Portland is still figuring out what to do with it. Yikes!
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- Toilet paper tube bird! This was one of the arts-and-crafts activities available for visitors. Stephanie was in this section of the event and showed off this cute creation to us!
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- Bring good luck to your home with this painted Ladybug. Also in the arts-and-crafts area, children could paint rocks in the form of insects and animals. Definitely keeping this idea on tab for next year!
Environment for the Americas 