The Bird House Lady of Westfield

(This weeks Retro-Rambler column was first published in the River Valley News on June 25/1992. That was 15 years ago. I don't know if Jocelyn still makes her bird houses or not.)

Jocelyn Steeves is sitting on the front porch of her Westfield home enjoying the morning sun. From here she can see all the way up the Long Reach. In between sips of orange juice, Jocelyn is making entries in her bird diary. She keeps records of bird sightings for the naturalist club. It's quiet this morning, except for the occasional car passing by and the birds. They're everywhere. Blue jays, rose breasted grosbeaks, sparrows, all taking turns at the feeder and all chirping loudly.

Jocelyn is known as "The Bird House Lady of Westfield". She has sixteen purple martin and tree swallow houses scattered around her property as well as numerous feeders. When Jocelyn moved to Westfield eleven years ago there were no birds around here. That changed when she started building the houses and feeders. It's a hobby she's had since she was a kid. Jocelyn makes them all from scratch in her shop above the garage. She sells them at craft sales and from her home and people are buying. Her biggest bird house is an apartment block for purple martins. It weights about fifty pounds and has up to sixteen separate compartments for the birds to live in.

"A lot of people are surprised that a woman is making these bird houses," Jocelyn says, "They expect to see an older, retired gentleman doing the hobby." Many of her customers come back year after year to pick up something new and to ask questions. Lately she's even had requests for bat houses. "Maybe that's the next thing I'll get into," she says with a laugh.

As a bird watcher and naturalist, Jocelyn is troubled by two things. There are no purple martins this summer. She lost them all during a cold, rainy spring two years ago and they haven't returned. Last summer she heard three of them but there hasn't been a peep from the purple martins so far this year. Her houses have been home to generations of the birds. Now they sit empty and silent. She doesn't know where the purple martins have gone and she misses them. Jocelyne's other problem is her cat. One of her four felines likes catching birds. She's attaching a bell around the cats neck to warn the birds but if that doesn't work she'll have to tie the cat up. It ust won't due for a bird lover like Jocelyn to have a cat that loves birds too. But for completely different reasons.

On the brighter side, Jocelyn is pleased to see more birds then normal at her feeders. Usually by now the numbers are down but not this summer. And nine pairs of tree swallows have made Jocelyn's yard their home. They've moved into her bird houses to live and to raise their young. And for Jocelyn Steeves, the bird house lady of Westfield, that's what it's all about.