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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 1958)
16A MAIL TRIBUNE, Medford, Oregon, Sunday, November 2, 1958 Diary of a Bird Watchei w Saturday, Oct. 25 The firethorn berries that have been io bright and pretty on the south side of our house aren't going to last for long. Today I found a flock of about 15 cedar waxwings had been feeding on them, besides robins and flicker. All these are fair sized birds; they just sit on a branch and gobble the berries down, one right after the other. As a bird lover I can't complain about losing the pretty berries. I can com plain that the berries won't be available to the birds later In the winter when food Is scarcer. But like a lot of other complaining, this won't do any good. There are still some cotoneaster berries far out on the branches where they are harder to get, also some mountain ash berries in a similar position. The holly berries I will kindly request the birds to leave until after Christmas. This they are likely to do, because I don't think they like them as well as these other kinds. If worse comes to the worst they can fall back on the hips of wild roses which they seldom eat except when snow and severe weather makes better food hard to get. Monday, Oct. 27 J. H. and I toured various roads in the valley, mostly on xne souin siae oi town, ior the first time we found fog a hindrance to our bird observations. We ran Into it close to the Rogue River along Kirtland Road and especially by Gold Ray dam. Here if there were any ducks they would have been scattered by hunters to the far parts of the pond and if thev S were there we couldn't see them because binoculars don't penerate fog. Another effect of hunting season is that we didn't find a pheasant until toward the end of the morning and then it was a hen. We also saw very few quail. We saw two female hooded mergansers on a pond on Springbrook rd. This is one of the more unusual species of ducks. I am glad that these ponds are now in the city limits ' because they make a kind of refuge for at least a few ducks and geese. Such protected waters are a boon to bird watchers. In Portland at Crystal Spring ponds in East & West Moreland the numerous ducks become quite tame and easy to observe. The same is true on an even larger scale at Lake Merritt in the heart of Oakland. Another noticeable feature of our valley trip was the large flocks of American goldfinches in their dull winter plumage. It seems we have seen more than usual this year. The largest flock we saw was mixed with the somewhat larger house finches and I also spotted one pine siskin among them. In the afternoon it was getting so dry on the home place that I started the sprinklers again. The cedar waxwings seemed to like this especially. One place where the spray reached to a tree limb I counted seven of them fluffing out their feathers to let the water in, then preening themselves. Like people getting a shampoo they don't look their best in the process, but the results are good. Birds nearly always look well groomed. Let that be a lesson to me and my too fre quently mussed up locks of hair. Tuesday, Oct. 28 At the end of the day, when the evening meeting was over, I settled down to relax by reading two bird articles in current issues of popular magazines. One was about bird migration in the Readers Digest, the other about crows in the Saturday Evening Post. Both were well written and in formative articles. The Post article has some good stories j like the one about the preacher with the talking crow. Al though the author covers groups who would like to wipe out every crow in the country he seems to lean toward a more sensible view himself.' If they are hunted in a sports manlike manner the crows are smart enough to be able to take care of themselves. As for bird migration, the more people learn about it the more wonderful it appears to be. Wednesday, Oct. 29 . Bluebirds visited our bird bath this morning. The sun shone on them just right and I never saw them any prettier. Seeing them brought a brightness to the day. Thursday, Oct. 30 I watched a cock pheasant displaying before a hen. This shows that dancing is like bird song, not limited to a single season and to nature's plan for the reproduction of the spe cies. Rather it spills over into all seasons and becomes an expression of the joy of life. I can t prove this, but I believe the hen enjoys the dancing too.-T.M. DRAPERIES AND SLIP COVERS ..-with Mr StaHu "FINISHING TOUCH" Colors "com to Ufa" ogalnl Fabrics fool offr drop better! They'll ttay cf.an.r wtar longtrt Resist wrinkling, tool finest Core for Houuhold Fabric ... Clethn To of No Extra Charge Call Us for New Low Prices On Washing & Dyeing Your Washable Rugs Many Lovely Decorator Colors To Choose From On Call Does All 4 Just Dial SP 2-6165 and let us open a charge account for you! 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