Birdhouses (and doves)
I was taken to task in Reader’s Voice recently . . .
Karin Fuller should research birds before she writes an article about birdhouses in her column. Only very few small species of birds use birdhouses. The reason the holes are small is to keep those small birds safe and larger predatory animals and other birds out.
I get so frustrated by people who jump to conclusions and accuse me of not researching. If they had kept reading just a few lines further, they’d have seen . . .
When it came time to decide what size hole to cut in our birdhouse, I went online to look for information. I found a chart listing hole dimensions and house hanging heights for a large variety of birds. Doves weren’t on the list. Turns out they prefer open-ended nesting shelves.
Fortunately, nice readers outnumber the grumps. Lisa McCracken from the Charleston Town Center Mall sent over a copy of a great picture taken in 1915 at the Bellevue Heights School in Syracuse. The photo appeared in Country Journal, courtesy of H. D. Daboll (the boy kneeling at the far right of the front row).
