A Bird's Roost
A Bird’s Roost
A tall eucalyptus tree which had grown beside my barn for the past twenty-five years had to be removed. It was cut down while I was away during the day, but on my return at dusk I was attracted by a lot of Junco hyemalis pinosus, Dendroica auduboni, and Zonotrichia l. nuttalli flying about the barn in great bewilderment. They were coming in from all directions and would fly to where they had been used to roosting, but their lodging house was gone. They came by fours and more, hovering in mid-air, and fluttered about in circles, then alighted on the barn which stood within three feet of the fallen tree. Many dodged down into the cypress hedge in front of the barn, keeping up short flights to the fallen tree as it lay in the road. Many were perched on the electric wires for some minutes as if meditating on being turned out of their roosting place. This tree measured 135 feet in height and had been a land-mark to the locality, being very symmetrical in body and beautifully crowned with foliage. Every year, both summer and winter it was a great congregating place for birds. Orioles, hummers, house finches and goldfinches nested among its slender leaves; while during the winter months blue jays screamed at English sparrows, and the meadow lark sought its branches for his morning song. Even hawks and owls sought it for a vantage point. What numbers of nests this tree could name had it but words to do so!
W. OTTO EMERSON
Haywards, Cal.
