A PLACE TO CALL HOME : CONEJO GARDEN HABITAT IS FOR THE BIRDS.

Byline: Gloria Gonzales Daily News Staff Writer

When the work of Westlake Garden Club members is done, a six-acre patch of the Conejo Valley will again be home to birds who may not have stopped over for years.

Their goal: to develop a native habitat within a swath of the 35-acre Conejo Valley Botanic Garden.

When completed, the habitat will include only drought-resistant California native plants that will attract native birds. Many feed on specific plants that will be returned to the area. A bird-watching trail will wind through the area. And a 35-foot waterfall will pour into a stream so birds can bath.

Work on the habitat began about a year ago, when the garden club received a $500 grant to return a section of the botanic garden to its pristine - pre-imported plant - state. The garden club matched the National Federation of Garden Club's grant with its own $500, and then contributed $250 more.

``And all the work has been completed by volunteers. They did all the designing, weeding and planting,'' said Jo Maturo, president of the Westlake Garden Club.

The next workday is Thursday.

Maturo will lead a ``mustard picnic'' with volunteers helping remove the fast-growing mustard plant. The plant is a native, Maturo said, but because of its invasive nature, frequent thinning is required.

The garden was designed by a volunteer landscape designer, Miriam Rainville, a graduate student at UCLA.

``For me it's been an invaluable experience,'' Rainville said. ``In school, everything is hypothetical, so this was really the first time I got my feet wet. And the whole idea was to draw native birds.''

First, volunteers cleared the area of non-native plants. Then the group came up with a specific design for the area, and Rainville researched plants native to the area.

``Plants are extremely specific to an area,'' she said. ``The garden is in an inland coastal valley. Coastal plants are different, and you'll also find different plants if you go 15 miles inland.''

Much of the early planning went into researching which plants would be found in an inland coastal valley. Next the design was refined down to the location of each specific plant.

Planting occurred in two stages with dozens of trees and plants put into the ground at each stage.

The waterfall was also planned and completed by volunteer Tom Hollow, a Westlake Garden Club member. Creating an environment that birds would want to call home was an essential goal of the design.

``We always thought about the needs of the birds,'' Rainville said. ``We had wildflower patches, areas that would provide shelter and good roosting bushes.''

Plants that provide food for birds were also essential.

``We chose plants whose flowers attract insects that birds eat,'' Rainville said. ``And shrubs with berries that birds love.''

Birds then digest and pass the seeds, thus acting as a step in the life cycle of plants.

``When it's completed, it should be an ecosystem that could go on without us,'' Rainville said.

Among the trees that will attract birds are black walnut, sycamores, Engelman oaks and Western redbuds.

The list of plants and shrubs is much longer, to name only a few species: arctostafphylos, rahmus, rhus, ribes, ceanothus and mahonia. These include species of flowering and berry-bearing shrubs.

``And because much of the planting went on during the last year, this should be a good bird-watching spring,'' said Louise Livesay, who along with her husband, Robert, contributed time and effort to the bird habitat. ``The salvia and Mexican sage alone should attract black-chinned hummingbirds and hooded orioles.''

The plants should also attract other native species. Those birds might include Bewick's wren, the song sparrow, Anna's hummingbird, Northern mockingbird, scrub jays, lesser goldfinch, black phoebe, rufous-sided towhee, acorn woodpecker and California thresher and quail.

A few weeks ago Barbara Song, who has spearheaded the habitat project, had her first reward for all her efforts.

``She saw a pair of egrets that have come here to roost,'' said Rainville, who also saw the pair one day while working in the garden. ``They look like something out of an Asian painting, like miniature geese.''

The club is planning a third planting. To volunteer or make a donation toward the completion of the bird habitat, call the Westlake Garden Club at 497-3266 or 495-4428. Or call the Conejo Valley Botanic Garden at 494-7630.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--Ran in Conejo, Simi and SAC--color in Conejo only) Garden club members Jo Maturo, left, Jean Reiley and Krstl Robbins hope a waterfall will help attract native birds to the habitat.

(2--Ran in Conejo, Simi and SAC--color in Conejo only) Colorful flowers will be planted to beckon native birds to the Conejo Valley habitat.

Jeremy Greene/Special to the Daily News