A BIRD MONTH.
—Johannes C. Anderson.
August is the hardest month of the three hard months, July, August, and September; yet it is the first month of Spring, the sign being the start of growth in vegetation—we see the first signs of the crocus, narcissus, daphne all these show that growth has begun. The singing of the birds, too, begins—especially the singing of the vigorous thrush; and this declares that the blood is mounting and the sap rising.
All the same, August is the coldest month of the year, which makes some people think it is the last month of the winter. No — it may be the tail end of the winter—and that is where the sting' is. It is the coldest month, when the food of the birds is scarcest, therefore let us make it THE BIRD MONTH. The Autumn berries are largely gone, and there is little else to take their place; few nectarous flowers, and the insects have not yet awakened from their metamorphosing winter dream. The birds, therefore, find it particularly hard to procure food, and when the birds are cold as well as hungry, their semistarvation too often proves fatal. Moreover, weak birds fall an easy prey to enemies. There is, therefore, great mortality among
the birds, the weaker old ones as well as the weaker young ones making way for those more vigorous.
According to the food supply, the birds can never exceed a certain number, and all the country is already fully winterstocked with birds, so out of all those reared every season not 25 per cent, can possibly survive. Their only chance of survival is in being provided with food; if left altogether to Nature the mortality will be very heavy.
More food trees planted, more food given, more shelter provided, means more birds; and more birds means more assistance against the huge invisible army of insect pests, which assistance is their reward to us for our assistance to them; besides that, we have their beauty and their song.
Remember, then, that in August, when we move about well fed in our furs and warm coats, when we smell the daphne and welcome the first narcissus, the birds, our friends, are hungry
and starving.
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Forest and Bird, Issue 24, 1 July 1931, Page 9
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372A BIRD MONTH. Forest and Bird, Issue 24, 1 July 1931, Page 9
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