Evening star., 1946-01-11
This and That
By Charles E. Tracer
I TULEWEEL.
"BROOKLAND.

Dear Sir:
Happy New Year! We thoroughly
enjoy your delightful column with its
infinite variety of birds, philosophy and
silent dog whistles.
In the last week we have had a rare
privilege, daily visit of band of eve
ming grosbeaks. We first saw them in
the rain on Christmas day, approx
mately two dozen of them rather we'll
divided as to males and females. 1t took
some close observation from an upper
window and then search through the
bird books to identify them Luckily, we
also had clipped an article from The
Star about the birds seen along the
canal.
In our garden they have been feast
ing on boxelder tree, well laden with
seeds, and they have nearly cleaned it
up. They come nearly every day. and
we have also seen them a few blocks
away. At least we decided they could
be the same band.
I'VE thought you might like to hear
about them. They are very beautiful but
on cloudy days one might easily fail to
see their coloring unless they can be
seen in the right light. They did not
appear interested in food we put out
for other birds.
I'VE have been wondering if the birds
have been seen in other parts of the
city. Sincerely, G. H. NJ"
X y * y
FALLS CHURCH, Va.
Dear Sir:
my first two callers of this year ap-
peared on the feeding board atop the
well house before 8 am. New Years
day, and remained fully Is minutes.
Although I am unable to identify
them, I will describe them as fully as
possible. They were about the size of
the snowbird, brownish-gray, rosy
brownish breasts and crown, one bear
ing slight crest of this rose tint, and
wing tips tinted with rose. The one
which bore no crest appeared to be less
colorful than the other, which I assume
to be the female.
Sincerely yours. o. c."
y X *
Evening grosbeaks were reported in
this column March %, 1914.
A flock of them were seen at that
time by a Bethesda. Md, resident.
This winter several reports of them
have come in.
They are beautiful, interesting birds,
and rare enough hereabouts to be in a
class by themselves.
Salt is one thing they like.
A dish of salt, placed in the yard, is
sure to attract them if they are in the
neighborhood.
There need be no fear of their over
eating of it. The grosbeak is a pure
child of nature, and knows what is good
for it-and how much.
X 4 X
Our second correspondents bird is the
purple finch.
The crest is not really a crest, but
simply feathers which can be stiffened
and held up bit.
Surely there are no two more beauti-
full birds than the evening grosbeak and
the purple finch.
The rosy tints of the latter surpass
almost anything in their feather line. .
The purple finch usually is seen in
February, hereabouts, but few may be
observed at almost any time from fall
to real spring
The grosbeak, of course, is the rare
one. but when it does show up it remains
for some time, arriving almost on sched-
ule every day, at fixed time in the
morning and in the afternoon.
Because of this it is possible to invite
friends around to see the birds without
too much chance of disappointment.
Our Bethesda correspondent Of 1914
had good sized flock, and managed to
have evening grosbeak parties every day
for several weeks.