AUGUST IS BIRD MONTH.

Forest and Bird, Issue 48, 1 May 1938, Page 2

AUGUST IS BIRD MONTH.

ONE GOOD TURN BRINGS ANOTHER.

PROBABLY not one reader of this Journal would be unwilling to offer food to friendly birds when winter makes it hard for them to pick up a living in the ordinary course of things. Some may intend to put up suitable feeding trays, but defer the good action until the need of it has passed by. Instead, they may throw out crumbs and scraps of other food in places where cunning cats may pounce on the birds, or may steal the meal. Rats, too, will be on the alert for such provender. Well, dear procrastinators, now is the time to set up feeding trays where the birds will be able to eat without fear of their prowling enemies. This kindness to birds from May to October, especially in the hardest month of all, August, carries them in good health and strength through the winter, so that they will be able to raise sturdy families in the spring. It is really a case of one good turn bringing another, for the birds wage war on the hordes of insects and grubs which like to prey on man’s vegetables and other crops in the spring. Apart from this material reward for kindness to feathered friends, there is heartwarming pleasure in watching them in a front or back garden, flitting and fluttering in all manner of delightful ways.