Yosemite, etc. [Part 1], Image 16

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 2018
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn-y1/16; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmn-y1/article/1015/type/native/viewcontent/MuirReel31_Notebook11_Img016.jpg

25 Yo [Yosemite] Birds Winter We have a few robins left with us every winter. His winter fare is mistletoe berries chiefly. Most go away to the lowlands in Autumn when the first snows fall. They frequent the smooth glacier meadows feeding on worms & berries on the border of small lakes or the slow flowing streams found in all these alpine meadows Huckleberry bogs prime feeding grounds in late summer. & wild cherries on way down to the lowland orchards when they find late pears & dried cherries & apples under the trees. Then in large flocks in orchards & vineyards & are too often ruthlessly slaughtered for the table. a poor use [to put] for such a fine musical instrument [to]. Better burn pianos for firewood [for kitchen use] (O. N. P. [Our National Parks] 236–8. Similarly) Kingfisher another of our winter birds & the golden winged woodpecker & the smaller [spotted] species noted for the size of his granaries & the number of its bins. They collect large quantities of acorns for winter use not heaping them together in a nest or hollow tree, but [he] drilling a separate [hole] chamber for each one in the bark or decayed wood of living or dead trunks mostly yel [yellow] pine, the thick bark answering his purpose well but many 26 in dead oaks also. Some tall dead pines 100 feet long or more are plugged [filled] from top to bottom, every acorn inserted head foremost & so well fitted that they seem to have been shot in like bullets fairly imbedded. In times of scarcity the Digger Indians rob the birds by digging out these acorns but fortunately this [it] is slow & laborious stealing & only resorted to when nothing easier is available. Owls We always have plenty of hollow voiced owls for echoes. Wren Wrens are among our winter birds & the [Baltimore] Bullock’s Oriole [?] & a few brown & gray finches, & large flocks of arctic blue birds These last form lively winter pictures in blue & white [berrying] picking among the snow laden mistletoe berries on the ...