Wisconsin School of the Air; Afield with Ranger Mac; 30

The Wisconsin School of beer invites you to go a field where the Ranger make today boys and girls we're going to hear about the human side of birds and not to take you on another radio hike on the nature trail here is your guide Ranger Mick. Hello boys and girls. This is your day. So up on the way and the birds are past returning it is time that we talked about birds as so that remain enjoy more of the companionship of these feathered friends. On some of the postal cards which Straight ahead are sent to Ranger Mack as Easter Greetings where the pictures of angels. All of these angels had wings when man thinks about that higher state to which he hopes to pass when he leaves this earth. He can think of nothing better than to be equipped with a pair of wings in song and poetry in story and legend. Man has shown his deep admiration for not only the flying ability of

birds but their music and their devotion to home and their young their ability as builders artists fisherman mimics actors dancers and as lovers so envious was man of the flying ability of birds that he invented a machine to get into the air and pass above the face of the earth with even greater speed than that of birds. Yet no man can equal the flying ability of the hummingbird though he tries to do so with a helicopter. And the birds are faultless judgment and knowledge of the tracklist spaces of the air are still Tom I am an unsolved mystery of the flight of the golden plover from the barren coast of Nova Scotia. To the South American country of Patagonia a distance of over half the circumference of the earth. Done without

chart and compass. That annual trip is still the wonder of the human mind. The exploit of passenger pigeons raised in a coop then taken thousands of miles away in a closed box. Then upon being released returned with exactness to the starting point. This exploit is beyond our explanation. When ocean birds come inland several days in advance of a storm it seems to indicate that these birds possess an understanding beyond our ability to explain when things get beyond our power to explain we call them instinctive and let it go at that. But today Ranger Mack is going to forget these scientific things about bird life and try to understand the spirit the feeling and the emotions and the promptings and that these

Predator friends have in common with us that this would be a drab world indeed if we had to understand everything fully before we could enjoy it. And once a great English poet heard the song of a skylark and wrote a poem in which we find these two lines teach me hath but gladness thy a brain must know there are as many kinds and shades of disposition among birds as there are types of people and there are the gay and the sad the sociable and the reserved. The trust pull and the shy the Frank and the deceitful the honest and dishonest The gentle and the violent and the peaceful and the quarrel some. However at the general tone of bird life is one of happiness and good chere. The

people who love music are among our happiest people. The birds are fond of music. There's the whistle of the cardinal. The gentle cooing of the dove the chatter of the sparrows the cry of a whip or a wail. This Grima of the hawk or the hoot of the owl. Even the weird cry of the loon is music. When wilderness is the stage we pay good money to hear human beings sing The Sopranos the tenors the controllers and basses. But where can you hear a better chorus than the one you can hear in a woodland. Just now at about five in the morning we strive in vain to describe the song of the hermit thrush. The songs of the Mockingbird are never alike and are made up of the strains from most every bird it hears. And so birds

must be lovers of music just as we humans are the personal appearance of birds entitles them to be ranked as artists. There is no grace to match the swan or a heron for that matter. A heron that stands motionless like a dead stick while hunting problems of birds are graceful because it is a natural grace. A bird spends much of its time preening its coat to keep well groomed and what marvelous coats some of them have the hummingbird the cardinal the blue jay the bubble ink the red stock so beautiful Are they that it was only a few years ago that women envied them their beauty and adorned their hats not only with their feathers but with their dead bodies. Surely birds are artists when it comes to personal appearance. We judge an architect by the buildings he

rears. And so we judge the artistic ability of birds by the homes they make and how they decorate them. Now the Baltimore or aureole is famous as an architect and decorator. The materials are gathered from fields and gardens and even barns. And when the work is completed everything harmonizes no class of artists it anywhere excels the Humming-Bird and the material used is the most delicate plant down and dried for flower petals held together with the silvery threads of the spider web. The outside is decorated with grayish white like comes gathered from stones and tree trunks while the inside is lined with the pine is plant down that can be gathered. Surely these birds must share with humans a deep love for home to create such an our palace. F. are the

little ones. Of course not all birds have the artist's love of the beautiful in the same degree the mourning doves build their nests of a few sticks just as some fisherman build huts of driftwood and straw. The banks swallow and the kingfisher build their nests in burrowed caves. And in some parts of the world human beings live in dugouts the robins build their nests of mud and grasses and we have homes of men on the plains built of mud and straw. Then there are some birds like the Cow Bird in the English who at that build no nests but lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. Take advantage of the parental love of other birds to raise their own. I have heard that there are cases of this kind among humans as well. You have studied about the cliff dwellers in south western part of

our country and on the high plateaus of Mexico. Their history goes back so far that time dims it out completely. There are cliff dwellers among our birds are cliff swallows are cliff dwellers building their guard shaped nests on the pieces of cliffs. And now in these days many times on the sides of barns on a bar near Deer a deer field. I counted over a thousand such bottle shaped nests. Now there are some birds you can see that love to live in cities live together just as people do. Social birds these are. And the cliff swallows are among them. One of the most interesting things to observe about birds is in the spring is their matchmaking birds are great lovers just as people are. And to see the males trying to win their brides in the spring is an interesting and beautiful

sight. The jealousies and rivalries of the males and females are quite easily understood because they are quite human. Probably the most laughable matchmaking antics among our native birds is that of the prairie chicken. Their behavior reminds one of the jitterbug dances that our young people used to dance at the affection of parent birds for their young is ideal in most instances. Many birds will die in protecting their young. And when the young birds are helpless the entire time of the parents is spent in giving them food and shelter and comfort. While young most birds need their own weight in food each day this requires constant hunting and many trips a day to provide the required food for a brood. The young are sheltered from the rain the cold and the hot

sun by either one or the other of the parents. If the young are taken from a nest the parents will follow and cases are known where the parents have fed the young while the young have been captured and caged. This is quite similar to human behavior don't you think. If you haven't a pair of nesting birds in you are in a place where you can watch them you are parchment and you will see a beautiful example of devotion and fidelity. A young bird's appetite is enormous. You will discover that. That's very much like a boy's appetite isn't it. The birds digestion is remarkable young birds are fed on the average of every 15 minutes from dawn to dusk. In addition to feeding the parents examen and clean the nests most almost every time food is brought. Besides that the young are looked over thoroughly pretty lights there

which trouble most birds and often kill them. So you can see that the attention given young birds is not widely different than the attention we received from our parents when we were helpless midgets crying for food and attention. Birds are curious just as boys and girls are too. But sometimes the curiosity on the part of boys and girls brings sadness into the lives of birds. I found a verse in an oral school reader which I want to read to you. There is a merry brown thrush sitting up and in the tree he's singing to me. He's singing to me. And what does he say. Little girl little by oh the wearables running over with Jai and the brown thrush keep seeing a nest do you see and five eggs hit by me and the juniper tree. Don't meddle don't touch Little girl little by or the world will lose

some of its jive. Well next week our trail comes to the end for the air. But three rebroadcasts will be made. If you have any choices send in your requests to WAGA School of the air making this request will you and your request will be considered by the next three times after our last broadcast now Mr. jargons and will be with us next next week to announce at the school rooms that have won recognition in the conservation corner and log book activity and we will have a little review of the year's work and then say goodbye to our companionship over the trail. And so until next week and maybe you will be like the brown thrush. Have a way over running with Jai and may the Great Spirit put

sunshine in your heart today and for evermore heap much of the familiar Indian farewell brings us to the end of another trip or field where the Ranger MK he'll be back again next week at the same time to be your guide for another radio trip down the nature trail when he'll tell us about nature quests for summer. This is the Wisconsin School of the air.