City of Mentor Hopes to Get Grant for Bird-Related Program

Mentor City Council approved a night making the second Saturday of May International Migratory Bird Day.

That resolution may sound like a pleasant though inconsequential line item, but it is actually a step in pursuing a grant from U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

City Manager Ken Filipiak said the city hopes to get as much as $70,000 from the Urban Migratory Bird Treaty for bird-related programs in the city; and, to do that, it needed to recognize International Migratory Bird Day.

"Mentor is known throughout Ohio as one of the best places to birdwatch. Now we may have an opportunity to promote it," he said.

Bill Martin, the city's director of parks and recreation, said the grant proposal has not been finished. However, any program would focus on education, habitat and conservation efforts, he said.

"We want to educate the people of Mentor and the region about the birds that stop here on their way south," Martin said.

Martin noted that Mentor is already a birdwatching hub. It has led the United States and Canada in participation in the Great Backyard Bird Count for the last two years.

Coincidentally, the Bird Count begins this Friday and continues through Monday. For the last two years, more than 700 Mentor residents have filled out checklists of the birds they spotted in the city.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is sponsored by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society.