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8 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, March 4, 1986 Bill Barr: Bird King of Sea Possibly the only hotel fancier than Bill Barr's birdhouse is - the Harbourcastle Hilton. Bill's Purple Martyn house is designed to hold 70 pairs of birds. [he GUMMI BEARS hae arrived! Party Package for 6 Kids t $69.00 (Plus PS.T.) - Theme decorating - Invitations - Balloons - Dishes - Lunch - Snacks - Craft-- Games - Activities - Complete Supervision - Filled Party Bags - Gummi Bear Cake. ¥) once upon a party .. 985-8009 GREYSTONE EQUESTRIAN CENTRE RR. 2 (Shirley Road) - Port Perry As well as our regular SUNDAY BUFFET we invite you to Join us on jSat., March 15 " to celebrate the Luck of the Irish" & Wearing O' The Green" Special Buffet Dance Buffet -7t09 pm Dancing 9pm. to] a.m. *30.00 couple Call for Reservations . 985-97 11 ® Amiable Bill Barr sits next to the collection of bird houses he will soon set up in time for springtime arrivals. To Bill's right is the giant 70 There's a side to Bill Barr that not too many people know about. Shoppers know the heavy-set owner of Stedman's as a gruff- voiced manager who rarely smiles, but those who know the Seagrave resident better than that, knows he is a big man with a big heart. The former president of the Scugog Chamber of Commerce, Bill has single-handedly done more for this community than most others, but it is not the human community of Scugog that this story deals with. This story deals with Bill's love of birds, and how the mere mention of a Purple Martyn can spread Bill's normally stoic face into an ear-to- - ear grin. His face fairly beams when he talks about his birds and he shows - off his birdhouse collection much like a kid might show off a prized set of baseball cards or a new bike. He'd always liked watching birds, he says, but his interest was piqued by the late Laurie Davis, known in some circles as The Bird King of Seagrave. "Laurie had a knack with just about all types of animals and birds," Bill recalls, and he picked up what information he could from Laurie with much interest. And then, about eight years ago, his wife Shirley had somebody make her husband a birdhouse and Bill automatically did what most other people do -- he painted it up pretty. "Not even a sparrow would nest in the bloody thing," he says gruffly. So he studied up on birdhouses and figured out that most birds don't take to fancy houses, especially his favourite bird, the Purple Martyn. They seem to like black roofs best, with plain walls, about 15 feet off the ground with a good flyway and close 0 a real house. ""'Martyns like people," he says. The closer to a house, the better -- this winter Bill went so far as to place a few houses on his TV tower. Every winter he'd take the houses in, clean them up, paint them and spray them for bugs. Every spring he'd put them back out. Eventually his perseverance was rewarded and Bill found himself the proud adopted parent of his first pair of martyns. A year later, he had two pairs, last year he had 16 pairs and this year he's hoping for a full 50. To make room for what he's hop- ing will be an influx of birds, Bill has built a 70 room bird "motel," a bir- dhouse of gargantuan proportions. It's not the first house Bill has built -- over the past few years he has been churning the top-quality wood houses out of his workshop (aptly titled "For The Birds"), where he spends a great deal of his time, especially in winter. He figures he has somewhere near 40 birdhouses on his property, including a duck house, wren- houses, and a few bluebird houses. Bluebirds are rare, hard to attract and territorial - which means their hourses must be spaced far apart, away from human activity. It seemed like centuries before Bill claimed his first pair, but when he did, '""You could have heard me from here to Huntsville. I had to set the houses out in a field, but I can take a lawn chair out in the field and sit with binoculars and watch." He pauses and says wistfully, room bird hotel he built last winter. See story for details. "I've never seen a prettier bird than a bluebird." Still, he's a fan of any kind of bird, especially the spunky Purple Mar- tyns who spend so much of their time catching insects and being saucy. The martyns go to Bill's sometime around mid-April and hang around until August when it's time for them to fly back to Brazil for the winter. He has studied much about the habits of the birds and his workshop is littered with books on the subject. He is forever doing experiments with his own birdhouses, determin- ing what type and colour of houses they prefer. 'People now' call me the Bird King of Seagrave, as he says, and I consider that an honour." 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