There are many opportunities available with Florida Federation of Garden Clubs, Inc., the Deep South Region, and the National Club regarding Backyard Habitat, Butterfly Gardens, Birds, Bees, and Butterflies. Please read below for more information about how you can get involved.

Backyards provide an essential habitat for many species of birds. You can draw many types of birds to your yard, even our state bird the Mockingbird, which is a superb songbird and mimic. It can be heard singing all night especially under bright springtime moonlight. Ensuring that birds have good sources of food, nesting sites, clear water, and protective cover becomes more important every day, as more habitat is lost to development, degradation and fragmentation. Birds are important indicators of environmental health and play a significant role in maintaining the earth's ecological balance-propagating plant life as pollinators and seed dispersers and controlling insect populations. Birds bring beauty and enjoyment to our lives. Let us remember pesticides are toxic to organisms beyond the targeted pests and their use is rampant in this country and pervasive in major river basins and aquifer systems. Try to reduce all pesticides, but eliminate those used on lawns. We have always enjoyed the beauty of birds so no matter where you live there are birds that need your help. 

AUDUBON CENTER for BIRDS OF PREY and the 

BALD EAGLE STAMP PROGRAM

Did you know the Audubon Society has been collecting commemorative stamps for the Bald Eagle Stamp Program since 1968? The sales of these collectable stamps are sold and all proceeds go to help sick and injured birds of prey. The program is called Audubon Center for Birds of Prey Bald Eagle Stamp program. The Florida Audubon Center for Birds of Prey was founded in 1979 in Maitland, Florida and has treated over 12,000 injured or orp

haned birds of prey (raptors) releasing more than 40% of these former patients back into the wild. Volunteers sort donated collectable stamps which are then sold to collectors. 100% of the proceeds go to help the birds. The collection and sale of special stamps has generated thousands of dollars for the Florida Audubon Society Center for Birds of Prey.

Commemoratives may best be described as the special “pretty” stamps that are issued for limited periods of time – perhaps flowers or birds or special state stamps for example. U.S. Commemoratives usually larger in size; also usually come in sheets, rather than rolls.

What not to collect are regular issue stamps, also known as definitives. Regular issue stamps are small, often squared and printed in the billions which limit their value. These stamps usually come in rolls, or in the small pocket folders. 

Do not attempt to tear or peel off the stamp from the envelope it is stuck to; simply cut away leaving l/4” all the way around the stamp to avoid damage. Only undamaged stamps can be used.

COLLECTABLE STAMPS INCLUDE:   

*Any stamp collections

*Any foreign, commemorative (one time printing of a stamp commemorating a specific person, place or time), airmail or special handling stamps.

*Any State or Federal hunting and fishing license stamps

*Mint plate blocks (especially older ones)

Members: Start cutting and saving your stamps, have someone assigned in your club to collect them at meetings and mail them or get them to your District Director and she/he can bring them to the State meeting twice a year. Non-Members: Contact Jeri Decker, Birds & Butterflies Chairman

So What's the Buzz on Bees? 

The honey bee is a critical link in the chain of how fruits, nuts, and vegetables are produced. Without bees we wouldn't have the beautiful flowers that we all enjoy so much. So let's get started teaching about bees and the wonderful world of pollination. Bees are our best pollinators; but no bees, no crops! Honey bees are vanishing across America. Some of the theories of the decline are due to climate change, plants blooming at an earlier time being affected by levels of pollution and pesticides as well as viruses. This is a crisis we cannot ignore. So let's start promoting bees through knowledge by getting the word out through school programs, community organizations, library summertime programs, and most of all through your Garden Club programs.

Butterflies are beauty with a purpose. Like any other life forms in the world they have a place and serve a purpose. For the plant world butterflies pollinate helping flowers, fruits and vegetables to produce new seeds.