Claude Eddleman Farm (1939-1958)

Birds and Wildlife

Since we lived on a ridge a couple miles from any year-round water and that water was just pools of a few hundred gallons, we had no mosquitoes. I was never bitten by a mosquito until I left home. Now we have farm ponds and I suspect mosquitoes are present. The absence of any rivers, creeks, ponds, or lakes meant we saw few water birds. There was a low spot in one of our fields and another on a neighbor and these held water until March or May some years to a depth of 3 inches. Some years a few passing migratory birds stopped at these puddles. We never saw any waterfowl except one foggy October morning when a lost flock of Canada geese spent a confused morning in the community. We did see geese fly over at high altitude a few other times. Thus my birding was confined to upland species. Due to the profitablitity of war work, there were some abandoned fields in our community and these were a gool place to look for song sparrows and field sparrows. Indigo buntings were rare but seen most years.

We always had houses for Purple Martins and attacted 4 to 6 pairs every year. They arrived in May reared one brood and by August were collecting in small groups to head southward to spend the winter in Brazil, where books say they winter. I longed for a good bird book but had only one with pictures of 12 birds and most of those never came to our farm. At the war's end an oil company book on use of lubricants had 25 postage stamp-sized pictures of birds and the Arm & Hammer baking soda company sent out 2 sets of bird cards. I had no binoculars, but I spend lots of time in the woods and fields to see what I could learn. The school libraries were of little help, but there were a few pictures in the encyclopedies.

Around the buildings and gardens we usually had a pair of bluebirds in the houses I built. We often had a pair of what I called house wrens, but they are absent now and we have Carolina wrens which were called wood's wrens in those day. Now some people have black-capped chickadees and tufted titmice nesting in birdboxes, but our farmstead was too far from wooded areas to attract those.

Horned larks, a praire bird, was common in the ploughed fields some years and folks said they ate the pumpkin and watermelon seeds.

Sparrow hawks were seen some years. Coopers Hawks were so common that they and animals ate 60% of our young poultry.

Kingbirds were a favorite and sat on the old abandoned telephone wires which crossed our front yard. They were one of my favorite birds and most likely to sit on the phone line after a summer shower.

My Bird Hut

About 1947, when I was 13, I built a small hut at the edge of the woods under a tangle of wild grapevines among a few red cedar trees at the edge of a small ditch where I used an old log and mud to impound water to a depth of about 20 inches and a dozen feet in diameter. It was 4 feet by 4 feet. I set 4 posts in the ground so 5 feet extended out of the ground and set 2 inch logs on them them. I nailed two pieces of waste scrap metal 5-V roofing on them for a sloping roof which was rain tight. Each autumn, I stood corn stalks around the frame to make walls and cut a one foot hole for looking at the birds. On the backside I left a small doorway for entrance. A stick of stovewood stood on end served as my seat as I watched for birds.

I had the most success with my bird watching when there was some snow. I installed a large flat board about 4 feet from the window and fed the birds cracked corn and cracked black walnuts. The birds mainly ate the walnuts. However, they usually just grabbed a nut and flew away to eat it else where. Thus, it was a cold long wait for a few glimpses of birds. I had no heat and I usually gave up and returned to the house after an hour or so.

Frequently, I placed the food in my gloved hand and waited with my hand on the feeding board and did not have too much trouble getting birds to take food from my hand. However, I had to stand perfectly still and in the 20 to 30 degree temperatures I got very cold and had to give up for a trip home after 15 minutes or so.

I have forgotten which birds ate out of my hand but it was probably tufted titmice. Other birds I commonly saw up very close were chickadees, blue jays, juncos, song sparrows, and cardinals. goldfinches were nearly as common. But that was about it. Nuthaches were rare.

More later with my birdlist and their scientific names.

Suggestions, corrections, and comments are appreciated: Contact Harold Eddleman indbio@disknet.com