Bugs = Bird Food
Friends Village in Newtown celebrated their new mission and values statements on April 30 with games and activities and a table focusing on native plants, bugs and birds.
Maia Simon, a resident and member of Bird town Newtown, Bucks County, also spoke to the assembled crowd about the importance of native plants and how bugs are bird food and the level of the food chain that eats more plant material than any other class of critters. They are responsible for taking the energy that the plants have created from sunlight and passing it up the food chain. Without the bugs, we would not only lose the birds, but humans would disappear, too. This might be great for the earth but not so great for humans.
Garden Project Tent at the Friends Village Rock & Roll-Out event.
In 2021, the garden committee of the Friends Village Residents Association set out to educate the residents and staff about the importance of native plants. They created a long-term plan to transition the 7-acre property to majority native plants. Both the residents and management signed onto this vision and work began immediately to transition from exotic ornamentals to native plants.
There was a small meadow established about 5 years ago and then neglected, so the committee is working to remove the invasive plants that have moved in and increase biodiversity with new plantings.
Four bluebird nesting boxes have been installed and one has a chickadee nest with 7 eggs! Maia reports that she had a cardinal nest by her back window last year that fledged 3 chicks! Many residents have bird feeders and many more enjoy seeing the birds that come to them.
Friends Village has been certified as a Monarch Butterfly Waystation by monarchwatch.com because of the extensive plantings of several kinds of milkweed, not only in the meadow but also in ornamental gardens. They are also ‘on the map’ at Homegrown National Park.
