36 TERE SAUD UB ON ci eae 
1936 Nature Diary 
By T. E. MUSSELMAN 
JANUARY 1. Like New Year’s resolutions, the weather forecast- 
ers began to augur mild weather, but these promises of springlike 
days will soon be broken. Thin coats on raccoons and squirrels, and 
small stores of acorns and hickory nuts hidden in the hollow trees, 
are too irregular to allow such prognostications. An extreme cold 
period is in the offing. It was mild enough today. Two Sparrow 
Hawks sat on telephone posts, then fluttered above fields with halted 
flight to drop on unsuspecting meadow mice. Two Grackles and half 
a dozen Rusty Blackbirds, whose croaking notes sounded like cor- 
roded metal, were braving the winter in the neighboring Scotch pines. 
Even scattered flocks of Doves and indiscrete Meadowlarks lived from 
fields of green winter wheat to the great stacks of discarded straw. 
JANUARY 5. Titmice like the warm sun and are calling “Peto.” 
Fiven the Downies feel the spell and are drumming love tattoos on the 
resonant limbs. 
JANUARY 6. A flock of a hundred Doves and some remnants of 
the badly shot up Quail are wintering about a field of buckwheat. This 
was cut and raked in piles but never gathered. The birds are enjoy- 
ing the great abundance of small grain. Chickadees are singing 
“pewee” as they hunt for dormant insects. It has started to snow. 
JANUARY 7. Two Red-breasted Nuthatches are using my suet. 
One carries a band attached last year. After the snow I lifted my 
small carpet exposing bare ground and scattered sunflower seeds, chick 
grain and millet. Redbirds, Song Sparrows, Juncos, and English Spar- 
lows enjoyed the feast. 
JANUARY 8. Juncos are on the increase. 
JANUARY 10. I captured two English Sparrows which I killed 
and dropped near a tree. A red fox squirrel found these, cleaned one 
and devoured it. The other he carried away and hid in the depths 
of a hollow tree. 
JANUARY 11. Cardinals are singing their ‘what cheer” songs. 
JANUARY 12. Today is warm. I put up thirteen more Bluebird 
boxes on the Liberty route. This makes a total of ninety-two boxes on 
a forty-two mile circuit. Found half a dozen bee trees. It is so warm 
the honey bees are flying and hungry workers flew to the neighboring 
maples where they drank sap—a fine laxative mixture that assures 
longer life for these little busy bodies. I saw three Bald Eagles and 
one Golden Eagle today. They stay near the breaking ice where dead 
fish are available. I saw two Northern Pileated Woodpeckers. They win- 
ter here in some abundance and occasionally stay to nest. Other irregu- 
lar records were Flickers and the Purple Finch, while on and above 
the river were American Mergansers and Herring Gulls. 
JANUARY 18. A flock of five thousand female Red-wing Black- 
birds passed over silently, busy about the work of finding food. Great 
Horned Owls have full complements of eggs. 
