Tom Norwood is betting that East Dallas/Lake Highlands is for the birds. Norwood recently opened Dallas’ first and only specialty bird feeder store, Wild Bird Center, in Casa Linda Plaza.
Here shoppers will find an exhaustive supply of feeders, specialized formula of bird feed and seed, birdhouses, bird books, bird videos, bird calls, bird baths, bird news, carved birds, cast birds and windchime birds, bird-watchers’ binoculars, bird gifts and even audio recordings including bird calls and birdsong mood tapes.
Even more important than the selection of bird-friendly gear is the expertise of life-long North Central Texas resident and wild bird booster Tom Norwood.
The Wild Bird Center is a dream-come-true for the recently-retired utility worker, a way to share his wealth of knowledge about our feathered neighbors. Norwood calls caring for wild birds “sanity maintenance.”
“It allows a person to relate to nature in a non-interfering manner that gives inner peace,” he says. “Feeding the birds gives you a conduit into something larger than yourself.
It’s especially great for a shut-in who can connect visually with nature through the birds who come to their houses and feeders.”
Norwood will teach you how to recognize, attract, feed and shelter just the right birds for your back yard. He’ll help you arrange your own priorities, whether you want to develop a habitat for a threatened species, welcome the returning bluebird back to Texas or teach the kids more about the wonders of nature.
Under his guidance, you can referee the relationship between birds, cats, fruit trees and squirrels, fill the air with sweet sounds of seasonal songbirds, use nature’s way to control the local mosquito population or accept the challenge of sheltering a people-shy variety with landscape plants and housing.
Through careful selection of such variables as feeders and food, the size of openings of birdhouses, placement of water and feed, Norwood guides his customers to attracting the birds they want.
If you don’t know what sort of birds are available for you to attract, the best time to shop the Wild Bird Center is at 8 a.m. on any Saturday. That’s when Norwood or another local expert leads a free nature tour, rain or shine, to nearby White Rock Lake. It’s a good way to learn the most about area birds in the least amount of time.
When choosing his store’s location, Norwood wasn’t just thinking of nearby highways, like most potential retailers, but also of flyways. From a bird’s-eye view, East Dallas and Lake Highlands are truly at the center of the City.
The area surrounding the lake for miles in every direction is a bustling bird metropolis, year-round home to woodpeckers, egrets, ducks, hawks, crows, chickadees, titmouses, mockingbirds, sparrows, and grackles. In addition, thousands of migratory birds and bats pass through the area every season.
Children are welcome on the guided tours, but Norwood says: “The number of bird sightings is proportional to how quiet the group is. To spot wild birds, you need tame kids.”
On a recent, two-hour birdwalk, spectators identified more than 34 species, representing a fair sampling of the area’s most abundant birds.
And lest you think you’ll leave Wild Bird Center with nothing but feathers in mind, check out the offering for bats. These nocturnal creatures may be the only inhabitants of our City more misunderstood than urban pioneers.
Wild Bird Center celebrates its grand opening March 20 with a major bird-watching event and an exhibit of rehabilitated birds in the store. Call 319-2473 for details.
