. Bird lore . TREE SPARROWS It was not long after the blindwas installed, with plenty ofseeds of millet and hemp, etc.,before the Tree Sparrows, Juncos,and Song Sparrows began tocome regularly. However, thereal visitors that I hoped for inthis inviting spot were the Red-polls. I had seen them in thisregion before, and I was parti-cularly anxious that they shouldpay this blind a visit and allowme the pleasure of adding theirpictures to my collection. The boat-blind was arrangedwith the front toward the north,but the low sun cast a longshadow. To get the birds to feedabove this shadow I built a
. Bird lore . TREE SPARROWS It was not long after the blindwas installed, with plenty ofseeds of millet and hemp, etc.,before the Tree Sparrows, Juncos,and Song Sparrows began tocome regularly. However, thereal visitors that I hoped for inthis inviting spot were the Red-polls. I had seen them in thisregion before, and I was parti-cularly anxious that they shouldpay this blind a visit and allowme the pleasure of adding theirpictures to my collection. The boat-blind was arrangedwith the front toward the north,but the low sun cast a longshadow. To get the birds to feedabove this shadow I built a snowpyramid high enough so thatthey were in sunlight wheneverthe sun shone. Frequent thawsand blowing snow made manychanges in the original pyra-mid, but between us wemanaged to keep the apex highenough to avoid the REDPOLLS 338 Bird - Lore At first, millet and canary seed were put in a can on the top of the pyramidand buried in the snow with only the top in sight. Whenever I madepictures I removed the can, filled up the hole with snow, and made a new open-ing filled with seed. The opening was not more than 2 inches across, and Iwas thus enabled to get the birds to come to a small area rather than feed overa broad surface. To avoid getting them behind the feeding opening, I made asnow-back high enough to force them to eat from the side. I also preferredto have them on the left of the opening in the afternoons, so a small pigweedkept them away from the right side. Birds are usually careless in their tablemanners and scatter seed about in a rather reckless manner. To prevent theirspending too much time picking up crumbs, I used to cover all the loose seedwith fine snow, to force them to feed in the proper place. While the Tree Sparrows and Juncos were notnew to the camera, I used to tryto get them
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectorn
