Notes from Field and Study 



369 



Iwenly-five. Our dining-room window 

 faces west, and the house is on the north 

 slope of a hill, so I very soon decided that, 

 with no evergreen trees near the house 

 and everything open to the sweep of the 

 northwest winds, I would not get many 

 birds to come to feed. To obviate this, I 

 went to the woods about a mile out of 

 town and cut down some twenty-five small 

 spruce and balsam trees, 12 to 18 feet 

 in height. These I had brought in and 

 built a thicket, using heavy tarred marline 

 to hold the evergreens in place and fasten- 

 ing to a number of small wild cherry trees. 

 This was late in December, but by 

 January ist I had a small flock of Chicka- 

 dees living in the thicket, and daily visits 

 from four Blue Jays and one female 

 Downy Woodpecker. In January I shot 

 fifteen more Sparrows. This seemed to 

 discourage them, for during the balance 

 of the winter I shot but ten more. By the 

 middle of January the Blue Jays had 

 increased to nine. Both Blue Jays and 

 Chickadees were much more partial to 

 sunflower seeds than to the suet; some- 

 times for several days at a time I did not 

 see a bird touch the suet, but they were 

 after the sunflower seeds all the time. 

 Early in January a flock of over fifty 

 Bohemian Waxwings appeared in the 

 neighborhood, and were around until the 

 end of April. They fed almost exclusively 

 on thorn-apples. Several times they were 

 in the trees near my feeding-booths, now 

 and then flying to the ground and feed- 

 ing on the sunflower seeds, but they did 

 not seem to care for them enough to come 

 regularly. In December a flock of Even- 

 ing Grosbeaks was seen in town, and 

 reported in various places from time to 

 time. While at breakfast, February 18, I 

 discovered one male and two females 

 feeding on the snow under one of the 

 feeding-booths. They stayed around all 

 day; when not feeding, sunning themselves 

 in some small wild cherry trees on the 

 south side of the thicket. The next day 

 two males and two females were here. 

 By February 22 the number had increased 

 to nine, and by the 25th to sixteen. March 

 3 there were twenty-four — sixteen males 



and eight females. For some time this 

 was about the number feeding daily, but 

 toward the end of March it seemed to me 

 there must be more, for they were devour- 

 ing the sunflower seeds at a very rapid 

 rate. April i the trees were full of them, 

 and by actual count there were fifty-one 

 birds, about two-thirds males. For two 

 weeks after their first appearance, they 

 fed only from the ground, but one day I 

 noticed one of them feeding from one of 

 the feeding-booths. The next day they 

 were feeding from both booths and a 

 couple of days later they visited the feed- 

 ing-tray at the window. After that you 

 could seldom look out without seeing 

 both the booths and the tray occupied. 

 They had the Blue Jajs quite subdued 

 and would drive them out of the feeding- 

 booths at any time they so desired. The_\' 

 got to be quite tame; frequently while I 

 was filling one booth they would feed from 

 the other not ten feet away. At the feed- 

 ing-tray they were not disturbed, although 

 frequently as many as five people would 

 be standing at the window watching them, 

 and not more than two to five feet away. 

 While they were here, we never sat down 

 to a meal by daylight that they were not 

 in evidence. So many wanted to see them 

 that we frequently invited people to 

 luncheon, letting them set the day. The 

 birds never disappointed us, but were 

 always present as promised. At first 

 the birds were very quiet, not a sound 

 from them, but, as the flock increased in 

 size, they became quite talkative, and from 

 about the first of March they kept up a 

 constant chatter. They arrived in the 

 morning about six and left for the night 

 at 3.30 to 4.30. I do not know where they 

 stayed at night, but, from their flight, I 

 judged in the woods about a mile south- 

 west of town, where there are many pro- 

 tected ravines. March 28 a large flock of 

 Redpolls visited us. That day at lunch we 

 had the unusual sight of seventeen Red- 

 polls, thirty Evening Grosbeaks and eigh- 

 teen Bohemian Waxwings in the trees and 

 on the ground, and all in sight from the 

 dining-room window at the same time. 

 Another unusual sight was on May 20 



