Evening star., 1945-06-15
This and That
By Charles E. Traceuell
"TAKOMA PARK, M

Dear Sir:
Il always read your column and en-
Joy 1t very much, as one Of my hobbies
is birds
Il have a story to tell you which has
meant much sorrow to me, and deprived
me OF a pleasure enjoy beyond ex-
preston.
Il have heard others express them
selves about the same thing, and the
Saddest part of it all is that it seems
there is no remedy for the trouble.
When I bought bungalow in the
suburbs to get away from the noise of
city life, the first thing I thought of
was to have bird house made that
would attract bluebirds and martins.
L came out here in the spring of AZ.
That year I did not have any bluebirds.
but in '43 two bluebirds came, much to
my delight.
The sparrows kept after them but
made every effort to drive them away
and finally I succeeded.
THE bluebirdS raised one family and
it was so interesting to watch them
Well, after the little ones were able to
take care of themselves, they stayed
SAA
They stuck around until late fall, and
last year were back very early for blue
olrds. The sparrows made desperate
hight to drive them away, but I threw
stones at them and with the co-opera-
ton of the bluebirds finally succeeded
and they raised two sets again.
This year the first day of February
they were back, the earliest I ever knew
bluebirds to come, and was raised on
farm in Virginia and knew about the
time to expect them.
THE sparrows fought and fought
them, and I did all I could, but one
Sunday the two bluebirds had it out
for good, and never saw such a fight,
In the trees, on the ground, and appar-
emily the bluebirds won out, but to
my sorrow, that day they left for good.
I put up the stepladder and pulled out
the sparrows' nests as fast as they build,
as do not want them A wren has
recently appeared and they fight him,
too. 1t seems too bad.
"a bird lover, ]. P. W."
X ~
1t this correspondent would place the
bluebird house lower, and out in the
open, the sparrows might leave the
house alone.
English Sparrows do not like the open
for nesting, but prefer caves, or lodges,
or even house cutters, or any over
hangs.
Those who have had most experience
with bluebirds declare that they come
most freely to houses placed on posts
in the open.
The box is put no more than three or
four feet from the ground.
This will seem pretty low to those who
have an exaggerated estimate of the cat
menace.
One bird lover in the Middle West
put up many miles of these boxes, and
states that he lost no bluebirds, either
the old ones or the young.
Traps may be made for catching SPAR
rows, but if used one must be sure that
he knows all the 10 species of sparrows
which come here, and does not destroy
some OF the fine. species. Young of the
purple finch and of the indigo bunting
greatly resemble common sparrows.
Even the marvellous song sparrow has
been destroyed on the assumption that
1t was the English sparrow.
We do not feel that our correspon-
dent has much to kick about, If he
managed to have bluebirds two out of
three seasons. We have lived in nearby
Maryland for 16 years and have never
had bluebirds but one spring, and then
they only stayed for half day.
AS general rule, sparrows like to
nest high, so that they tend to shy away
from the box which is low. This gives
us good tip on just where to place the
bluebird house. Attempting to trap
sparrows is often a failure, because
others fly in from the surrounding ter
ntory.