Evening star., 1947-05-23
This and That
BIZ Charles E. TracetoeH.
"CoMYNHoLM.

aDear Sir:
AIn these days of discussion of daylight saw
ing would like to recommend daylight using
particularly the early morning hours, to those
who are interested in natural life. Sunrise
strolls the last few days have discovered to me
many birds that might be passed unnoticed
during the buster hours.
ITO mention a few incidents, the first to come
to mind was large flock of goldflnches and
solitary indigo bunting feeding on dandelion
seeds, which reminded me of your May dis
course on the possibilities of dandelion- -eating
rabbits.
when see these birds having such good
time with the fluffy dandelion seeds and also
remember how as a child I used to play with
the long hollow pipestems, making curls by
splitting them and also improvising sort Of
musical instrument by blowing through them,
I wonder If after all we can't endure few on
our lawn and by the roadside. The fnches
match the dandelions quite well as camo-
fage.
IT discovered pair OF black-billed cuckoos
The male fed the mate a caterpillar one less
of the tent variety. I'm for more of these birds
II they will really keep down the caterpillars.
''The birds seen included all the usual ones,
and what consider unusual such as the hum
mingbird In the silver bell tree. the redstarts
brown thrashers, wood thrushes, cedar way
wings feeding on apple blossom petals and bay
throat with his dashing black mask, the many
warblers and so on.
There is a honker that flies up the creek
from the Zoo each morning, sometimes with
mate, and heron stands In the shadows
watching for bite to eat.
when the traffic and other noise makers
are at minimum in the early daylight hours,
bird songs can be heard best
Yours truly, p. B. E."
One can always get up early, Of course,
without believing in daylight saving in the
least
The birds have been practicing such saving
all these centuries and thousands of other two
legged creatures on farms, in suburbs, towns
and cities have been getting up early through
necessity or simply because they wished to do so.
Daylight saving as an accomplished fact,
shows how mankind likes to fool itself.
It is, of course, practical method for getting
people up early, with the emphasis put on the
other end of the day.
That last hour of daylight, the birds dis
covered long ago. is not as good as the first hour
after dawn.
Getting up early always has been practiced
by sensible persons, since they feel better and
have more pep" and insight then.
This means that for true savoring of the
treasures of this world there is no time like
daybreak.
No one forces you into this. 1t is realiza-
ton. q growth, personal preference, in day
when personal preference is beginning to be
looked upon with suspicion.
Get up early with the crowd, as the result of
q law or a regulation, and you are not spied
upon, but get up by yourself. because you want
to, you may be regarded as slightly cracked, !"
especially by those who love to lie abed in the
morning upon which theme Harry Lauder
wrote one of the best of his songs.
There is no better time to look upon and
listen to bird life than the earliest daylight
hours.
These are, and always have been. the birds
very own hours, even more so than dusk.
II we intrude upon them at such time, we
must be very careful to 60 slowly and softly, to
keep the human element out of the picture as
much as possible But II we watch and listen,
we will see some beautiful things and hear
some of the most wonderful music this side Of
heaven.