Dear Tweeters:

One good thing to come of bird-feeding is that it gets at least some people into birding.

I can say that it was my mom's feeder that got me wondering, "What in the world is that black, red, and white bird out there? And that yellow one?" The book she'd bought (from an advert on a bag of seed), the old Golden Guide, provided me with the answers to those questions (Rufous-sided Towhee and Evening Grosbeak). From there, it was just a small jump to the little project of finding out what all the other birds at the feeder were. The hardest one to figure out was the House Sparrow, since it wasn't in the sparrow section of the book.

By the time I figured out the House Sparrow, I was hooked for life--all because of a humble feeder. I suspect there are a few Tweeters out there, birders who now know all the different plumages of the California Gull, but who got their start once upon a time sorting out the juncoes from the finches at the old family bird-feeder.





Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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