THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 28, 1995 TAG: 9506270153
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Every morning now if the windows are open, I don't need an alarm to wake me up. By 6:30 the house finches have had their first cup of coffee and are chattering away over breakfast.
A window feeder with safflower seed is their breakfast table and the gregarious little finches don't seem to stop talking even when they're eating. The handsome reddish-purple tinged dads and the brown-streaked moms and youngsters fly from the tree to the feeder and back again, talking all the while then, too.
They talk when they are happy and when they are scared, it seems. Curious young finches will perch on the windowsill and look in. If they see me, the babes take off, startled but still twittering. Their tiny whistles sound just like those of a child learning to whistle for the first time.
They don't stay away for long though. Fear is quickly abated when safflower seed is in the offing. And judging from the constant comment, safflower seed is the best food since sliced bread, even better than thistle seed.
So I know the only way to sleep around my house these days is to close the windows and turn on the air conditioner, or allow the feeder to get empty. However, I hope a need for sleep is the only reason I stop filling that feeder.
A recent press release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says otherwise. According to the wildlife service, the eye infection, called conjunctivitis, seen in finches last year, has not abated.
If you see finches at your feeder with swollen or closed eyes, you should stop feeding the birds, the press release said. Busy feeders where finches and other birds congregate are ideal places for the disease to spread. (The conjunctivitis transmits only to birds, not humans or other wildlife.)
The wildlife service also recommends disinfecting your feeder weekly with household bleach as a safeguard. Though I admit I'm not as good at as I should be at doing this, we all should be cleaning both feeders and birdbaths especially in hot weather when birds are feeding heavily.
I have more birds at my feeders in summer when youngsters are around than any other time of the year. And bird for bird I have more house finches than any other species of bird.
It's unusual that these noisy little guys are so prevalent here. Until the 1970s, house finches were not widespread at all on the East Coast. They were known as a Western bird. According to the Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American birds, the first house finches on the East Coast came from the pet trade.
Captured illegally from the wild in California in the 1940s, house finches were shipped to New York City dealers under the name ``Hollywood birds.'' Barred from selling the birds by the wildlife service, the dealers then released the caged finches to the wild.
Slowly they spread out from New York City throughout the '40s and '50s. By the 1970s house finches were living as far north as the Canadian border and as far south as North Carolina.
House finches can be confused with purple finches, but having never seen a purple finch that I know of, I'm not sure whether I could tell the difference. For one thing we aren't apt to see a purple finch here, except in winter, because they nest farther north in summer.
Also the Audubon encyclopedia describes the house finch male's red crown, breast and rump as a brighter red than the rosy or raspberry color of the purple finch. Both females are streaked with brown.
Both the house and purple finches are seed eaters and frequent backyard feeders. But I wouldn't be surprised if the house finch doesn't have it all over the purple finch when it comes to wake-up calls.
P.S. MOUNTAIN LAUREL can be transplanted, said Laquita Dunn, if you transplant it in the dead of winter and at the exact depth at which it was growing before. She learned this from the late Wylie Hinson who was once the supervisor of Norfolk Botanical Garden. She now has mountain laurel growing in her Alanton yard. It was transplanted several years ago from a Middle Plantation lot that was going to be cleared.
SUMMER OCEAN COLLECTION boat trips with the Virginia Marine Science Museum begin at 12:45 p.m. today and continue at 12:45 p.m. on Wednesdays through Aug. 30. Trawl for seastars, sand dollars, rays and a variety of other fish from the ocean bottom and observe them in aquariums. The fee is $10 for adults and $8 for children, 11 and under. Call 437-6003 for information. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
House finches - a reddish-purple tinged male and a brown-streaked
female - fly from the tree to the feeder and back again. A feast of
safflower seed has them whistling while they work.
by CNB