Evening star., 1948-05-04
This and That
BV Charles E. TrdcelUel

By Charles E. TraceUeH
The flicker Is bird that always attracts
attention.
E. H. a resident of Arlington, writes as
follows:
I'VE noticed a lovely bird very early Easter
morning picking beneath hickory tree which
looked tawny in coloring from a distance
The size of startling, more slender and
lengthy. General cooring seemed to be brown
ish dark stripes running horizontal over en-
tire upper part of body.
Upon the head spot of red upon the breast
tip large, long splotch of black The break
large and long. bit of white at the base of
tail. Was this lovely bird -one of the wood
pecker family? If so, We had not seen him in
this vicinity before"
The flicker is woodpecker, sometimes called
the golden -shafted woodpecker. 1t eats ants
its favorlte dish. and sometimes drums on
metal
We will never forget the racket one of them
made on a neighbor's garbage can that had
been cleaned and left on it's Nde for drying.
The bird hammered away for half an hour,
rolling the notes as capably any drummer.
Some fickers stay here the year around,
others fly in at migration time
The name probably comes from an attempt
to initiate the cry of the bird, though the
original meaning of the word flicker" is to
f1utter.
The flicker INDUCES in no more futtering
however, than most birds
This correspondent calls attention to a fact,
that birds seem to be nesting closer to houses
this spring than ever before: g
Perhaps it would interest some of the read
erS who, like myself, have thought that more
dome5tically inclined birds such as the robin
and mocker nested near civilization but just
to what extent they do was surprised to note
this spring.
ooni, L,,;I+
narrow second story window ledge, just wide
enough for the nest, where. except for the
kindness of the residents in closing the curtain,
she would be brightly Illuminated at night. She
is now on the nest.
"A Mrs. Mocker is building in shrubbery only
three feet from the ground and near door,
way as she can get.
She has not yet gone officially to housekeep-
ing. The male mocker whom fed all winter
religiously helped TO build the rather loosely
woven, shallow nest carrying bits Of fine roots,
string, paper A real helpmate.
Il thought that nature endowed birds with
more sense of protectiveneSs than these loca-
tionS suggest Or is it to be supposed that they
feel we humans will offer protection to them?"
Birds feel no such thing; life to them is real
and life is earnest and the placing of the nest
must take its chance, as all living things must
take their chances
1he birds know this, and all pure animals
know 1t, with the sublime knowing of nature
creatures. Most humans, perhaps, do not know
1t. They have become bemused by mans mind
which tries to build up picture OF social Sc
curity.' and the like
The birds know better They know there is
no such thing, and never can be such a thing.
They know, as a few humans know, that life
is balanced on razor edges One moment
dog Is happy at play, the next he is just
bloody mass in the street
The birds build their nests. They take their
chances, just as all living things must take
chances. That was what Walt Whitman meant.
whep ne wrote about how he would love to live
With the animals. They do not whine about
their condition" he said
Often the sites chosen by nesting birds seem
absurd choices, from a human viewpoint but
the birds like them, and manage to bring up
most OF their young. In the long run-some
millions of years-they have done as we'll with
their choices as if they had listened to the
reasons of mankind
After all. mans mind has not led man to
much,S the birds might chrp. See what we
see: rising prices, imitation, men fighting men
all over the world, crying peace when there
Is no peace, all under the shadow of that
masterpiece of mans mind, the atom bomb.
Wen stay birds and don't come trying to
give us any advice thank YOU"