ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 



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11 



Photo by J. Evelyn Ridgway 



My Winter Guests 



For, lo, the winter is past, the rain (in this case snow) is gone: The 

 flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing of birds is come, 

 and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land. 



Spring is, indeed, now well advanced and seems the more glorious 

 by contrast with a winter of unprecedented duration and severity. 

 The grass is brilliantly green, and the lawn-mower has twice gone over 

 our place; many shrubs and trees are putting forth their new foliage, 

 pears and other fruit trees in bloom and many birds nesting. Doves 

 have been hovering their eggs for a week or more. Blue birds are set- 

 ting, and Robins, Blue Jays, Brown Thrashers, Cardinals, Chickadees, 

 Tufties, Downy, and Red-headed Woodpeckers, Flicker and Carolina 

 and Bewick's Wrens, either have nests or are building. (A Robin was 

 seen with its mouth full of building material on March 15.) 



Snow covered the ground continuously from December 8 to about 

 February 9, the snowfall for January alone being 23^ inches. There 

 were fifteen days in January when the mercury fell to or below zero, 

 and twice it reached 18 degrees below. 



I might continue to write of the miracle of spring, but at this time 

 I am going to tell of my experience in feeding the birds during the past 

 winter. 



I have always, as long as I can remember, had bird guests, but never 

 in such large numbers. Food was bought in quantity and of various 

 kinds as there were birds of many different tastes to cater to. The list 

 includes Juncos, Cardinals, Flickers, Hairy (both Northern and 

 Southern) and Downy (ditto) Woodpeckers, White-breasted Nut- 

 hatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Chickadee, 

 Mocking Bird, Blue Jay, Carolina Wren, Tree Sparrow, White- 

 throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Field Sparrow and 

 Brown Creeper. At times, the hawks were attracted by the numerous 



