Native Plants For Birds And Butterflies

John Longstreth, director of Bent of the River Audubon Sanctuary in Southbury, will be presenting a program entitled “Native Plants for Birds and Butterflies” on Wednesday, February 8, at 7:30 pm, at the senior center in Sandy Hook. The program will be sponsored by Town and Country Garden Club of Newtown.

Mr Longstreth worked for People’s Bank for many years until he decided to take his life in another direction and went to Yale University to study forestry and environmental studies.

He has lived in Southbury for many years, and in his first semester at Yale he accidentally learned that the position of director had opened up at Bent of the River. He applied and was hired and has been there ever since. 

The Bent of the River is a national Audubon Center that sponsors many educational programs for middle school and high school students as well as adults. Since so many other centers focused on younger children, they decided to concentrate on older children because the terrain is very challenging.

Two popular adult programs are “Birding by Ear” and the Woodcock walk that takes place at sunset when the woodcocks engage in a fantastic mating ritual flight in March and April.

Adult volunteers help maintain a series of gardens that range from one designed for butterflies to one that contains spring ephemeral wild flowers.

The name Bent of the River came from a land deal between the English and the Native Americans that took place in 1702.  There was a 160 degree bend in the Pomperaug River that existed for centuries, so “bent’ was an archaic spelling of “bend” that somehow remained and is still in existence today. There are no identifying signs on the property although it contains wonderful habitats that attract an incredible variety of birds and encourages many native plants to flourish.  Nature walks are encouraged.

Mr Longstreth’s talk will be a power point presentation that will show people how to make their backyard or garden a friendlier place for native plants and wildlife. He will discuss the problems of invasive plants, the needs of birds, and display a variety of shrubs. He will have handouts from the DEP and give out a list of nurseries that feature native plants.

The program is free and open to the public.

For more information on the Bent of the River call 264-5098.