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Eleanor Mehlin writes about BIRDS on Bogue Bankss
"Are you a bird-watcher too? Of great interest to us, here in Pine Knoll Shores
(o -her than the sea and the shore) is the variety of "feathered friends". At our
feeder there are flocks of purple finch — not really purple, but the male wine
colored and the female resembling a small sparrow. There are noisy bluejays,
gcssy black red-wings and many cardinals, their brillj.ant plumage bright against
the trees. Well named — the North Carolina State Birdi Chickadees, Carolina
w:?ens, and the small warblers constantly f3.it around iu the denser shrubbery aiid
the towhees, thrushes, and fox sparrows scratch endlessly in the brush and under-
growtha Of course, the sparrows we have always with us — it is a challenge to
sort them out. The flickers t:nd red-headed woodpeckers? search for insects up and
own the tree trunks but the ladder* ^backed (red'-belliod woodpecker) occasionally
V ,si.s the feeder, for a change of aiet. The mockingbird coi..es frequently to
ba .ne and when we hoar his song, there is no doubt of his presence in the neigh-
bcrnood. The Kingfisher glides down over the canal, searching for fish, and nests
In the sand bank on the opposite side.
Such excitement in April when we saw the first painted bunting.' What was that
beautiful bird at the feeder? No one had mentioned them, and we had never seen
one before, so we rushed for the bird book. The male is a bright mtchwork of
color, blue, green and red. The female a brilliant yellow-green,
^s-o^spring, huge flocks of robins invaded, made away with most of our ornamental
eriieo, and^moved on to the noirth, And, in May, a pair of great crested fly-
ca-cchers, while house hunting, came by and investigated our purple martin house.
We xe^t before they settled in but hope the final occupctnts were purple martins.
As yea probably know, they are supposed to help keep down the mosquito population,
any of you are interested in building an apartment house for them, stop by —
we have directions,
A feeder, with a mixture of seed, especially sunflower, and a bird bath of fresh,
clean water is so necessary to attract the many birds.
For identification "Biids of North America" ( a Golden Field Guide, paperback,
$3.95) is invaluable, » »
Jot only our^editor, Mary Doll, is traveling, Lucy Elmendorf writes: I spent
three^weeks in Mexico during January^ sight-seeing with my sisterj a few days
vir.iting friends in Bethlehem, Pa,, and two days in New York to see Joan Suther
land in "Tales of Hoffman". So I missed all of January in PKS,
We^had a week in Mexico City, with lovely, cool weather, just right for a light
suit. It took us a couple of days getting used to the 7000 foot altitude, and
the street noises in our hotel. After that, we put in a lot of time at the
marvelous Anthropological Museum, which has examples of things from all of
Mexj.co s colorful past. We also managed to get lost getting to the San Angel
Saturday ^market of fine craftsmen, Ifhen we finally found it, we were way3.c.id
by a musical program in the park outside in which the city was presenting school
children playing the harp. The market itself is in an old house, with food served
in the courtyard, and every inch of space taken up by very superior work, well
displayed.
From Mexico City we flew to Oaxaca, buisaing the famous peaks of Popocatepetl and
Ixtaxihuatl in passing, Oaxaca is only 5000 feet above sealevel and was a little
warmer than Mexico City, It is the capital of the sate of the same name, with
about 100,000 inhabitants, but has the comfortable feel of a small town. It is
predominately Indian in population and is noted for its production of native arts
ind crafts, particularly a black pottery and weaving. We saw a marvelous per-
coriiianceiOfiMexican dances in a hotel courtyard on a Saturday night, very spirited
In both Mexico City and Oaxaca we took trips to archaeological sites, the famous
ixo-Golumbian pyramids, and from Oaxaca we flew to Yucatan where we took a tour of
ore pyramids, Yucatan is at sealevel, flat, hot, and humid. The pj^’ramids in
^ach place represent the work of different cultures and are quite distincts
*ztecs in Mexico City, Mixtecs and Toltecs in Oaxaca, and Mayan in Yucatan,
Finally we flew and bussed to Palenque in the state of Chiapas where we saw the,
pyramids of all, this time in a very lush tropical mountain
getting. We stayed in comfortable hotels everywhere, except Palenque, and the
.•1 hotel there, half furnished, and in a constant state of rebuilding, looked as
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