Evening star., 1945-01-05
This and That
By Charles E. Traceueu.

Real holly wreaths, with berries, served
as bird feeders during the holidays.
One mockingbird flew to the front
door OF home in nearby Maryland and
proceeded to get himself good meal.
1t was an interesting and beautiful
sight, the fine bird darting across the
lawn to the front door and perching
on the green wreath.
Ihe great bow of red ribbon beneath
him set off his own sober shades of gray.
with some white showing on wings and
tail when he flew away.
No doubt tbs same picture was seen
in many yard
1t always surprises the observer who
see it for the first time.
Every Christmas season this column
is deluged with telephone calls from
friends of birds who think they are see
ing something unique.
Another natural happening which al
ways excites people is the trick of the
squirrels in walking telephone wires.
There is no year goes by but scores
OF persons call us in excited tones to tell
of something new" they saw just little
while before.
X Y X *
One person put out laurel leaves and
red berries in window box and found
that mockingbirds and blue jays came
to it.
These berries, as most of those used
with holly wreaths, are not holly berries,
but some other sort.
Whatever they are, the birds eat them
with relish.
This is the season of the year when
all berried shrubs are sought by the
birds which winter here
These include jays, titmice, nuthatches,
chickadees, cardinals, white -throated
sparrows, song sparrows, English SPAR
rows, juncos, doves, flickers and the
doWny, hairy and red-bellied woodpeck-
ers and the little brown creeper, and. of
course, the starlings and pigeons and
few bluebirds.
Any one who wishes to protect holly
wreaths from the birds might be able
to do so by putting out plenty of raisins
nearby.
Raisins make fine winter food for such
birds as Knockers, starlings, cardinals
and English sparrows
II there is a mockingbird in the
vicinity, he will get most of them, be-
cause he is bolder bird and will come
right up to the house
The mocker belongs to the group of
soft-billed birds Their bills are not
hard enough to crack seeds. It seems
as II nature gave an unfair advantage
to the hard-billed ones, such as the
sparrows, for they not only eat seeds and
hard grains, but also breads and fruits.
The starlings even have to dunk"
hard cruSts of bread. This is an in
teresting sight, one worth putting out
bread for An old starting flies down to
the crust, tried his bill on it and finds
it too hard, being an intelligent fellow,
he looks around for water and carries
the bread over to it and then dips it into
the water.
We have seen starlings rescue drown
ing English sparrows from puddles into
which they have fallen and also use
mate as dry mat to stand on while
eating piece of bread
Starlings will utilize covered bird feed
ing stations as refugees from the weather.
All in all, they are very intelligent. A
sign of this is their utilization of
window ledges on heated downtown
buildings as winter roosts. AS birds to
watch. starlings are as interesting as
any. They are superb flyers, among the
very best we have. In winter they also
act as scavengers, cleaning up from the
countryside all bits Of meat, bread, etc.