Evening star., 1949-07-22
This and That
By Charles E. TracetDeH
"VARNUM STREET.


Dear Sir:
while most. of the items in your column
cover the Washington area. it occurred to
me that many of your readers might be
as interested as I was In the inclosed ex-
tract Of a letter from my father, who is now
living near the Manatee River at Bradenton,
Fla.
THE birds are a never ending source Of
attraction to him. He has three feeding
trays in front Of a large picture window.
in house built on the ground level, and
so has ample opportunity for the observa-
ton that he describes.
Sincerely yours, E. B. K"
The inclosure follows:
Our greatest amusement down here con-
tinues to be the birds. and they are getting
more and more so. Our feeding board on
the ground in front Of the house Is about
18 inches square. and it is cleaned off COM
pletely two or three times a day, If we put
out that much.
This morning it has taken lot Of our
time to watch the big white egret parading
around, most deliberately close to the house.
She stands about three feet high and is
certainly pretty to look at. Rosie christened
her Lily Pons long time ago, so that's what
We call her now.
Take your pencil and put down the fol-
lowing in ascending order: Sparrows, crested
<titmouSe cardinals, towhees, blue jays,
quail, brown thrush, red-headed woodpecker.
This is roughly the order in which dom
nance has been established, although there
are occasional exceptions.
Everything, of course, chaSeS the spar
rows The titmouse is a rather Spunky little
fellow but pretty small. The cardinals have
more gumption, and the towhees plenty;
besides that they scratch like hens.
There are endless blue jays that are
big bluff They come sweeping down on
the board and scare away everything tnat
precedes them in the list.
Quail are very mild and inohensive. but
once in a while one gets his dander up.
sticks his head down and ruf1es his feathers
up, and chases jay.
The brown thrush comes along. and ne
cleans out everything. including jays.
The red-headed woodpecker comes along,
still more seldom, and when he does, ne is
complete boss. The mockingplroS oont
touch grain. Last year they were avaricious
for bread but they haven't touched 1t this
wear. OF course, the mockingbird Is poss
of everything when he takes notion. II
doesn't make any difference how Dig the
bird is or cat, or dog, or human oelng.
We have handsome flicker once IN
while and now and then a hummingnro.
This list is of the birds that regularly 1eeo
out in front of the house. When one goes
out into the woods in back he nnds a. lou
of other things
If we have to choose, I think prooaply
cardinals are our favorite. They are surely
handsome and also good family people The
father cardinal fed the youngsters when
thew were about as big as he is and the
other day. when he was on the feeding boaro,
he picked up q piece Of grain and took 1t
over and gave it to Mrs Cardinal. who was
perched on the side of the live oak watch
ing him.
Lately; also, we had flock of little birds
about the size of sparrows that we haven't
identified yet have counted as many as
eight on the board at one time
What will interest many particularly about
this letter from Florida is that there Is not
with the exception of the egret. a single
bird that Is not famlliarly known 10 Diro
lovers here.
This means, then, that most OF us Will
| not have to 60 to Florida or. indeed. any
| other place, to see some of the worlds best
birds.
Let us keep that in mind, when some
| times the happiness Of watching the feath-
| cred folk begins to grow stale.
| Here in our own small yards wherever
| we live, we have the same cardinals, the
same flashing jaybirds, the same mockers
| the same titmice, towhees, thrushes. II
we live on or near the Potomac-still in the
Washington area-we may have an occa-
| sional egret, too.
| Since they have wings. the birds will
| find us out But even then sometimes, it
seems slightly miraculous that these beauti-
| full birds have found U.S. and seem so at
i home with us, If We have enough sense to
feed them and to be interested in them.
This is one Of the small happinesses Of
brutal world. We should hold onto It,