Evening star., 1948-01-05
This and That
By Charles E. TrdceDelI

ARLINGTON Va.
Dear Sir.
"A few days ago a large flock Of brown
creepers. dozens of them. invaded our premises
and for about two hours kept up constant
f1utter and chirping. They visited the feeding
station, holly and dogwood trees and spent
much time playing around under the blue
spruce.
"As we watched, three Of these little birds
made very complete investigation of a wren
house in dogwood and one of them suddenly
started to enter the one-inch circular opening
but only succeeded in getting his head and
part of one wing in and there he stuck and
of course began, great struggle to get out,
with no success.
Almost Immediately his two comrades,
perched on small branches, caught hold of the
trapped bird, apparently one by wing and
the other by leg and tried to pull him out.
This was hopeless so we promptly went to the
rescue and found the little fellow so fast in
the opening that there was real danger Of
breaking his neck.
However through careful manipulation he
was Strengthened out and removed An exami-
nation indicated that he was not wounded
although his little heart was beating fur1ously.
Upon being released on the lawn he shot
away like rocket straight to tree where
his friends were waiting.
do you think it unusual for large flock
Of brown creepers to travel together2 We nor
mally have few Of them around almost daily
but no great numbers at one time and we
wondered if they were migrating. Also do you
think brown creepers would occupy box in
the spring if about a 11a inch opening were
available? Wrens and chickadees use the one
inch doorway.
I'VE enjoy and profit by your articles and
comments and agree with you about most
everything except the cats"
VERY truly yours, r. M. F."
Creepers and other small birds sometimes
get together in flocks in winter SO that they
may all find food more readily.
: What one finds, the others get.
That is the system, and it seems to work
out nicely.
Even our large robins utilize this idea at
migration time, after leaving the congregation
Southland
Flocks Of from so to 100 and sometimes
200 robins fly down on local lawns.
They must be seen as soon as they land,
however, or the sight usually is missed. be-
cause with the exception of the gathering
in the South they are not much given to
fiocking together
once these small bands of robins land
here, the individual members deploy out across
the ground. =
, If they are seen at this instant, they present
a very unusual sight, since they are almost
in soldierly formation, at least what might
be called old-fashioned soldiers formation.
More resembling a childs-toy lead soldiers
Brown creepers remain here all winter, but
these bands may fly in, now and then. We
have never seen such band.
Creepers usually do not nest in houses. One
suggestion has been made, that these birds
may nest under loose strips Of bark nailed
to the trunks of trees.
The idea is to nail the strip of bark to the
trunk and make it hang loose with one or two
inches between the bark and tree.
Many species of birds will investigate bird
houses just out of curiosity. with no real
idea of nesting in them or seeking shelter.
No doubt many birds lose their lives IN
such adventures as related by our correspond
ent.
When there is no helpful human around,
there is nothing the caught bird can do
except struggle. and little its comrades can
do to help it, since they lack hands.
This incident shows again how much man
kind is indebted to its hands. With hands,
it is possible to do so many things the four
legged animals and the birds cannot achieve.
And in doing them, we have trained our
minds, too.