I never thought I would ever welcome a house sparrow, but today I about cheered when I saw a house sparrow at my feeders. It was the first time since the Cooper's Hawks had appeared over two months ago since a house sparrow has been around. In fact, it was the first time that I had seen much of anything except a few visiting chickadees, a Spotted Towhee, and three little siskins who have lived past the nine lives of any cats around! And of course, the Scrub Jays are always here for their daily ration of peanuts.

In the past two weeks I have not noticed any more hawks, and it has seemed like the birds have been acting a little more natural in the last week or so. In fact, a small flock of ten Purple Finches was here twice lately, but acted very nervous and stayed just long enough to make a small dent in the sunflower feeders. Hopefully now the house sparrows are returning means that the hawks have given up and have not been able to make it worth while to make this territory part of their haunting grounds. Or hunting grounds. Up until the last two weeks, the birds showed an extreme nervousness when feeding, whenever any birds were here at all. I am hopeful that the hawks are gone and will forget to return, but I know I am probably hoping for too much.

Anyone around Centralia, Chehalis, that has seen the birds returning to normal or the hawks still around, I would appreciate hearing.

j.v.bonham
Centralia, WA
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