Page 52 - SOM Summer 2017

neck of the woods | art

Great Horned Owl
their prey of small fish, gophers, Main Street Beautification Award.
and mice.”
Other featured birds include
Even larger are the elegant san- great egrets, ring neck pheasants,
dhill cranes, which stand 40 to American avocets, bald eagles,
48 inches tall with wingspans up pileated woodpeckers, Canadian
to seven feet. Because they fly at geese, and western grebes. More
high elevations and make distinct trivia? A few samples: Great
rattling calls, the elegant sandhills egrets, which were nearly extinct
are often heard before they’re in the late 1800s and early 1900s,
seen. have nicely rebounded. Pheasants
were introduced from China in
The boxes have become part of the 1800s, and the males make
downtown’s landscape, which cackling sounds to lure females.
is especially gratifying for Bell. The foods of choice for crow-
Along with conceiving the pro- sized pileated woodpeckers,
ject, she sanded and applied base North America’s largest wood-
coats of paint on the boxes to prep peckers, include insects and
them for painting. Each spring caterpillars.
she scrubs the paintings clear of
accumulated dust and dirt. The No matter what bird is featured,
project has received positive each box also includes—some-
feedback from townspeople and times prominently, but more
comments on social media, and often discreetly—images of
was honored with an Oregon “Midge the midge,” a nod to the

Pilated Woodpecker
50 www.southernoregonmagazine.com | summer 2017