Evening star., 1948-02-03
This and That
By Charles +. Tracet1eu 80 '' r.
SANDY SPRING, MD.

- SANDY SPRING, Md
Dear Sir:
Like many other people, am q daily fol-
lower of your column. During the past summer
woodland in Hyattsville. I had great Dane
and two Scotties. None of the dogs chased
birds.
Daily put out fresh water and food for the
birds and there was always Suet on the trees.
During the two years we lived there had
about every kind of feathered visitor you could
name in this area. Many of them you helped
me identify.
Last spring we moved to Montgomery
County Our 31a acres is alive with every kind
of bird high in the trees We have the same
condition here plenty of food, including suet
and bread, fresh water daily, plenty of dog
wood trees, and yet-no birds!
Il really miss the little callers, as any one
would who has watched and fed them for two
years. and has grown to look forward to seeing
them regularly.
1--WE are living in a garage until our. home is
completed. What I've been wondering is this:
Why don't the birds ever try my restaurant
Do you think the piles of lumber and the ever
changing building materials, lying around the
place, frighten them?
"Or could it be that they're waiting for me
to get lawn and shrubbery around for the
place to look more settled and lived in?
IF you have any suggestions, I'd surely
appreciate them. Thank you and keep up that
wonderful column. Sincerely v. r. G."
Birds, no less than people, at times seem con-
trary.
Aren't birds, and cats, and dogs, and squir-
rels, after all. people?
If we watch them, and feed them, and enter
to some extent into their lives We find that,
often surprisingly enough. they are great
deal like u.s.
This makes them people" at least in one
way Of looking at them.
And in turn it enables them to be just as
cranky, just as contrary, with just as good a
right to have their own likes and dislikes rs
human people.
This must be said first of all, in fairness to
the creatures of the wildwood.
If we put out food, we think they should
come, and mostly they do, but how do we know
what the creatures think about 1t?
They are not really automatons, but living
things, with their own creeds of action, their
own laws, some of them centuries old.
The birds belong to the oldest group OF all.
Who can say, even today, what strange
sounds they hear, or what unusual sights they
see?
Ordinarily they are not kept away from good
food by noise, or confusion, or change, but in
the present case it is most likely.
Then, too. there may be hawk in the
neighborhood, or small boys with air rifles.
not deadly weapon will seem almost crimi-
nal to those who love the birds A well aimed
pellet will end the life OF q small bird.
In all cases where birds do not come readily
to q bird feeding station, the thing to do is to
be patient, keep the feeder well stocked. and
carefully try to figure out what is keeping
them away.
In many cases the latter is not easy, in some
practically impossible, for it must be remem-
bered that although much work has been done
on bird study, especially during the past 200
years, these odd creatures, coming down in a
straight line from the days before man was
man, still are mysterious. still strike us as
things from another world. When; mankind
! thought of angels, he could do no better than
| give them wings. The ability of the birds to
| fy-and what flyers they are!-still sets them
| apart from all the rest of creation. Mans fly
ing efforts are clumsy, to a degree, in COM
parison with the birds.
But If there is much we still do not know
about them there is one thing We can be sure
of, and that is that they are very hungry in
the cold The lure of food is compelling, and
any one who puts it out for them may fee
| sure that in time-perhaps their own time
they will fly down to sample it. It is rs are
| so many matters in this world, q matter oi
time.