Evening star., 1949-01-13
This and That
By Charles E. Traceuell
RIVER ROAD.

RIVER ROAD.
Dear Sir:
rs it unusual for flicker to be seen in
this neighborhood now?
Thursday saw one in the rain hammering
on several branches of a large maple tree next
door, and evidently finding something very
delicious therein, which he gobbled up
He also came to piece of suet we have tied
to bush near our window and ate with pusto
A pair OF doWny woodpeckers are frequent
visitors mere, as are also chickadees and titnice
DO you think it possible that chickadee or
tltmouse would hop or fall into milk bottle
container?
Last year my mother found one in the
bottom OF the box one day (dead) and I've
wondered whether some one put 1t in or whether
the little bird hoped in when some one left it
open, or what? They are very nosey' little
birds, or perhaps out of curiosity hoped in
and couldn't get out, poor thing
The birds are all delighted with a new
feeder we hung up for them Christmas Day.
Where can you get something cheap to
1eeo them? Sincerely D. T."
4
Flickers are customary In this vicinity in
winter.
Not all Of them stay here, but many do, and
these make themselves quite at home
They give good service, too, in eating stray
insect eggs and larval forms, which they find in
tree bark, in the crevices
Sometimes they eat small bits of food secreted
IN bark creVices by the jays
Ihe Ticker is the prize ant eater, but he will
not find many of these in the cold.
In early spring, he may be seen running that
long DILL along some crack in a sidewalk where
he has found a busy ant crowd on the march
II
Both the chickadee and titmouse are tinv
birds, among our very smallest.
Ihey can get into hole no larger than IA
lnches, for the chickadee, and IA inches, for
the titmouse
Even nuthatch can go through an opening
OF the latter size.
We are not quite sure our correspondent
means one OF the large boxes in which milk
bottles are placed, Or one of the paper con-
tainers for milk.
Surely either bird could get in one of the
large boxes kept at the door. They might be
tempted because of its general resemblance to
a bird feeding station.
We seldom stop to think that we are actually
conditioning the birds, through our feeding of
them, to be on the lookout for queer eating
places, that Is, queer at least to the bird mind.
In nature such, bird food is never found
in rectangular wooden boxes!
Food, in nature, comes on bushes, or flying
through the air.
1t may be dug up out of the ground, as our
robin with his worm, or it may be found in
crevlces OF bark, as the flicker with grub of
some sort.
But IN nature the songsters never find neat
boxes. or houses, carefully put together, with
hoppers to hold food, and maybe big piece of
tin beneath TO keep the squirrels out
OF paper milk containers, one has an opening
too small even for a chickadee to enter
The other has neat round hole at the top,
into which a chickadee we believe, could pry
himself, and probably would, if he got chance
AS for cheap bird food, we suggest our cor
respondent try baby chick feed or scratch feed,
both Of which may be purchased from regular
iced stores, or from some hardware stores.
Both of these are acceptable to the seed
and grain eating birds-including common
sparrows, turtle doves and pigeons.
These mixtures may be popped up with the
addition Of some of the better grades of wild
bird food"
Or add small handful of sunflower seed
to each painful of baby chick feed or chicken
scratch feed.
In this way. all tastes are catered to-includ-
ing those of the squirrels, cardinals chickadees
and others
Another way of cutting the cost of feeding
the birds is to put out food just twice day,
early morning and at dusk, instead of keeping
the hoppers filled all day long.
This method supplements natural food, keeps
them eagerly searching for such food, but at
the same time gives them at least some high
carbohydrate foods to help keep them warm in
the cold.