In Berkshire fields . leased by a pair ofchickadees, who are usually shy, woodland nesters,for all their tameness through the rest of the I can imitate (so can any one, for that matter)the call of the chickadee, I always whistled softlyin the morning as I drew near the nest, as the malebird always did, perching on a twig or wire sometwenty feet away and calling without dropping thebit of food from his bill. In answer to my call, outof the hole in the box would pop a tiny black-and-gray head, and two sharp eyes would peer all aboutwhile I came close and looked at her. If thefe isany sig
In Berkshire fields . leased by a pair ofchickadees, who are usually shy, woodland nesters,for all their tameness through the rest of the I can imitate (so can any one, for that matter)the call of the chickadee, I always whistled softlyin the morning as I drew near the nest, as the malebird always did, perching on a twig or wire sometwenty feet away and calling without dropping thebit of food from his bill. In answer to my call, outof the hole in the box would pop a tiny black-and-gray head, and two sharp eyes would peer all aboutwhile I came close and looked at her. If thefe isany sight in the world prettier than that of amother chickadees head popped out of her nest inanswer to the call of her mate, I have yet to see her mate was bringing her food, it was neitherthe love-song nor the full chick-a-dee-dee-dee callwhich he uttered, but only a sweet, wiry dee-dee. POKING AROUND FOR BIRDS NESTS i 33 Among the common birds who customarily nestin the orchards or other trees about our dwellings. The orchard haunts of the woodpecker in spring are, of course, the robin, and then the bluebird, theorchard and Baltimore orioles, the great crestedand least flycatcher (or chebec), the nicker, the 134 IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS downy woodpecker, and the king-bird. To thislist may often be added the warbling vireo, thesummer yellowbird, the screech-owl, and sometimesthe humming-bird. In my former yard the cat-bird,who is generally associated with the wild road-sides or pastures, was a common visitor, a pair build-ing each year either in a red osier dogwood directlyunder my study window or in a tall syringa near one does not commonly think of them in suchclose proximity to our dwellings. The robin, being a large, noisy, ubiquitous bird,usually betrays its nest in short order. It seems tohave no choice of tree for its abode; in one season,for instance, there were five nests around the house,one forty feet up on the extended limb of a pine(this nest was robbed by the
Size: 1389px × 1798px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
