Evening star., 1936-01-22
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL,

JOYS of bird feeding in Washington
Winter are shown in the following letters:
Dear Sir: As must all bird lovers
who read The Star, we get such great
enjoyment from reading Of your adven-
lures with the bird feeders that am
hoping you won't be bored to hear Of
our window ledge adventures.
Being apartment house dwellers, that
is our only contact with the birds, and
we have been amazed at the good luck
we have had.
TT all started one week end wnen, on
returning from two days in the country,
we found that robins had built q nest
on our bath room window ledge, which
was sheltered by an awning and hidden
from view from the court by a growth
of ivy.
1--WE had left the shade down on leav-
Ing, and from then on, all during the
nesting, we never raised that shade ex-
cept to peek or to put raiSins on the
ledge during the absence Of the birds.
X X
with the greatest thrill we watched
the male robin feed the female on the
nest, watched the emergence of three
scraggly little robins from the blue eggs:
and when the fledglings first ventured
out Of the nest we actually suffered Tor
fear they would fall from the ledge.
Nearly every morning that adorable
robin sang his greeting in the sun on
the ledge of my bed room window about
3 feet from my head. 1t was then that
began to love birds for the first time,
and when that small family finally left
us, we felt as though we had lost dear
friends.
Moving later to perhaps one Of the
noisiest corners in the heart OF the city,
we had small hope of tempting birds to
the window ledge, but we've had extraor-
dinary luck.
"Titmice, nuthatches and cardinals
come all day.
"A downy woodpecker makes an occa-
sional call; one lone sparrow and one
little chickadee come with the titmlce.
"Sparrows, juncos and starlings never
come to the ledge, though they flock to
the ground just beneath the window.
I'VE share the common dislike OF
pigeons: in fact, my husband is quite
violent on the subject, and I am sure
passersby who have been treated to the
spectacle of a wild-eyed man in a
dressing gown shooting at pigeons with
a bean shooter every morning think this
place is harboring harmless lunatic.
We've gotten the pigeons pretty well
under control now, but there remains
the squirrel menace. We are on the
second floor, and they are continually
scrambling up the ivy and seem to regard
our efforts to shoe them away as jolly
game of some sort
1.-THE nuthatches are the most aggres-
sive of the birds. They were the first
to discover us, and they attack any
bird who ventures to the ledge when
they are there. They are not afraid of
us, and will come when the window is
open and we are beside it. The other
birds are more timid. but they, too,
come when we are sitting there.
The cardinals Of course, are our
especial delights.
"One redbird brought his two shivering
babies to the ledge and with encouraging
chirps fed them sunflower seed
"At one time our beautiful male bird
came to the ledge, only to fly away imme-
diately to the tree by the window. where
he perched, scolding loudly When
came to see what was the matter, I
found the pigeons had been there before
him. started housekeeping at once,
but not for two days would he return.