My sister, Lila, and I were very adventurous little girls back in the 1940’s. Lila was two years younger than I and we played together constantly. We did not spend much time in the house. Since we did not have toys, we found things around the farm to entertain ourselves. One of those fun things for us was playing in and around trees. There were many trees on our farm too. Where there are trees, there are many birds. One could sit inside the house or outside and enjoy hearing them sing.
When we spotted a bird’s nest in a tree, we climbed up to the nest to investigate and view the newly laid eggs. Sometimes, we followed the eggs progress to the hatching stage. We had been forewarned by our parents not to ever touch a bird egg or a hatched bird for fear the mama bird would abandon the nest. However, we did not heed that command if we found an egg or baby bird on the ground. We gently picked them up and climbed up the tree and put them back in the nest.
Turtledoves laid their eggs on a more flat nest and closer to the ground so we had to be very careful not to jar the limb that might make the eggs fall. Their eggs were white and larger than most other eggs. Mocking birds had small blue eggs. Sparrows laid a smaller tan and brown speckled egg. Killdeer laid their eggs on the ground, sometimes right out in the open. They feigned broken wings to lure predators away from their nests. Their eggs looked somewhat like the Sparrow eggs, but larger. Blue Jays laid their eggs in other bird’s nests often destroying the eggs of the bird who built the nest. Although a Blue Jay is a beautiful bird, Mama and daddy did not like to have Blue Jays around for that reason. Their eggs were small with a bluish hue. The crows made their nests in larger trees like cottonwood trees. Their eggs were larger than most and a mottled bluish-green color. Cardinals laid two to four bluish eggs with brown mottled spots. They made their nest in less thick branches like a young sapling. We often ran into Quail eggs that are tiny tan eggs with brown spots and laid on the ground in grassy places.
Since we have lost so many trees here on our farm, we do not have near the amount of birds as we used to have. The two huge cedar trees we once had in front of the house produced berries. It attracted all kinds of birds and a few squirrels. They are gone now and so I rely on birdseed to attract birds. I keep a feeder just outside of my window so I can watch them each day. I can not imagine living anywhere that birds are not plentiful.
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