by Peter Twitchell
Growing up in the 1950s at our fishcamp, 3 miles upstream on the southside of the Kuskokwim, Mom had her home that was built in 1939. Each summer there were hundreds of blue with white belly swallows and there were also mud swallows that made their homes on the banks of the Kuskokwim.
In addition to those summer birds that migrated up here from down south, we had chickadees, we had yellow birds, we had robins, blackbirds, I even saw a woodpecker one time. It had a redhead hammering away at a tree with its beak.
I loved birds as a boy and each morning at 6 o’clock I would hear them singing. We had such beautiful weather back in 1950s – calm. We didn’t have storms like we have today and I loved spending my time walking through the trees watching for birds and where they landed and I went to go look where they landed.
They always had a nest with chicks in them. That was my favorite pastime with birds of many species – redheaded chicks and every bird you can imagine.
Dad always had four bird houses for swallows which migrated and those bird houses were always occupied each summer.
When I lived in Bethel on Watson’s Corner, many times swallows – those beautiful, blue headed white breasted swallows, would hit my window and fall to the ground. I got tired of seeing that and I decided one day to draw a picture of an owl with the yellow eyes, brown body and huge claws.
I was reminded of this when a friend of mine told me that a yellow bird had hit their window and fell into the ground, never to fly again.
Once I had my drawing of a huge owl with big yellow eyes, brown body and huge clawed feet hanging on my window, there was never another swallow which hit my window. They avoided, perhaps the image of themselves on the window and flew away. If you have a problem with birds hitting your window, perhaps you’ll think of something to put a stop to that.
Have a great summer and enjoy the beauty of those birds that are here for a while.