- Dec 26 12:28 pm
#34496
Thoughts from a memory dump. (For a genealogy project I write similar recountings.)
Ancient Days
I’m old. Really old. I was born in Vancouver, as was my father (too young for WWI conscription and too old for WWII conscription). My paternal grandfather came to Vancouver from Ontario after the Great Fire razed the city in 1886 (I think it was). He was in construction and hoped to earn a living working on rebuilding the city.
I am so old that I can remember when we had home delivery of three basic food items – milk, bread and fish. My oldest memory of the milkman was that he came around early in the morning using a horse-drawn wagon. My mother would leave empty bottles out on the porch for return credit and put a note with her order shoved into an empty bottle (glass). The fish monger would travel up and down the alleys, also using a horse drawn wagon. As did the junk man. We also had delivery of ice for the “ice box”. “Phone to Morrow for your ice today,” I recall the radio jingle. I also recall that a loaf of bread purchased in the store cost 15 cents. McGavin’s delivered bread door to door. A marginal business at 15 cents/loaf, but they also sold other bakery items.
I can remember being on Streetcars, taking the Tram along Arbutus and another that stopped in Central Park.
So what about birds? Although I was not a Birder by any means, I do recall that we had some interesting birds around – and interesting birds that were not around.
We lived in the middle of Vancouver, near where East turned to West with the Avenue cognomens. There was a pioneer family next door. I think they owned most of the block at one time and were using 3 lots for themselves. (They also used a 4th lot where they piled up stones from the other lots when they cleared for gardening.) These people had a chicken coop and grew most of their vegetables. They also had an old growth fir tree in their front yard and a bing cherry tree in the back yard.
In those days we had a “washing machine” which was not like those of today. No clothes dryer. Instead there was a “ringer” attached to the washing machine. After washing and rinsing, the laundry was put through the ringer for preliminary drying – like the spin cycle on today’s machines.
How was the laundry dried, you ask? Everyone had a “clothesline”. Ours went from out back porch to a pole out by the lane. The next door neighbours had theirs go by the cherry tree.
These clotheslines made good perching locations for birds.
We had some gardens too. We grew gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries. We also had a cherry tree. My dad also planted tomatoes and sometimes beans and peas in the back yard. I used to grow large pumpkins as I like (real) pumpkin pies. We also grew various flowers, which seemed to cycle as some flowers were “in” one year and another, the next year. Carnations were big one year; Snapdragons, another. We also had several varieties of roses. All these plants also helped attract birds, giving cover and food.
I do recall each Spring/Summer we would be visited by Hummingbirds. I don’t know what type, but recall bright green iridescent throats – not purple or rufous.
Lots of birds I assume were Sparrows lived around the cherry tree. They would often sit along the clothesline by the tree in a row, making soft noises as they dozed. The only other birds of colour I recall were escapees – budgies and canaries. There were many Robins about – again attracted by the cherry tree. Occasionally a woodpecker would come by and my current knowledge links with my memory to realize that these were Pileated Woodpeckers. In those days telephone poles were made of wood and the woodpeckers often landed on the sides to forage for bugs, I assume.
Almost every night I could hear an owl hooting in the neighbours’ fir tree. I did go out with a flashlight to try to find it once and did get an eye reflection. From my current knowledge of owl calls, I assume it was a Great-horned Owl
There was also the occasional Mynah Bird. An uncle used to catch birds with a seed trap. He used a raised wire cage with a stick under one end and a string attached to the stick. When an interesting bird went in to feed, he pulled the string and captured the bird. I recall him saying that he had caught around 100 different species of birds this way. He had a large cage in his back yard – perhaps 20’ X 20’ X 10’, where he kept many birds. He tried to tame a Mynah bird once and teach it to talk. An absolute failure. It was so vicious that my cousin had to wear leather gloves when he cleaned its cage. This uncle lived near “Little Mountain”, now known as Queen Elizabeth Park. In those days the reservoir at the top was open.
There were birds we called “Japanese Starlings”. They had white circles on their wings.
One bird that was conspicuously absent was the Crow. Here’s why.
In those days, most kids had a BB gun/rifle. There was a feed store called Buckerfield’s. It was a successful business and the family was wealthy. (Friends of the Hilton family in San Francisco, but that’s another story.) Buckerfield’s offered a bounty on Crow’s feet. We (myself and neighbourhood friends) got 5 cents per pair from the store.
Hence, it was very rare to see a Crow in the city. I recall seeing a couple at a large nearby undeveloped area we called “Big Bush”. But every time we saw one, someone would take a pot shot at it.
I think the absence of Crows affected the abundance and variety of birds in the city at that time. Later, when the bounty was discontinued, Crows quickly re-established themselves in the neighbourhood. Other birds became scarce. Mynah birds and the Japanese Starlings disappeared.
Ancient Days
I’m old. Really old. I was born in Vancouver, as was my father (too young for WWI conscription and too old for WWII conscription). My paternal grandfather came to Vancouver from Ontario after the Great Fire razed the city in 1886 (I think it was). He was in construction and hoped to earn a living working on rebuilding the city.
I am so old that I can remember when we had home delivery of three basic food items – milk, bread and fish. My oldest memory of the milkman was that he came around early in the morning using a horse-drawn wagon. My mother would leave empty bottles out on the porch for return credit and put a note with her order shoved into an empty bottle (glass). The fish monger would travel up and down the alleys, also using a horse drawn wagon. As did the junk man. We also had delivery of ice for the “ice box”. “Phone to Morrow for your ice today,” I recall the radio jingle. I also recall that a loaf of bread purchased in the store cost 15 cents. McGavin’s delivered bread door to door. A marginal business at 15 cents/loaf, but they also sold other bakery items.
I can remember being on Streetcars, taking the Tram along Arbutus and another that stopped in Central Park.
So what about birds? Although I was not a Birder by any means, I do recall that we had some interesting birds around – and interesting birds that were not around.
We lived in the middle of Vancouver, near where East turned to West with the Avenue cognomens. There was a pioneer family next door. I think they owned most of the block at one time and were using 3 lots for themselves. (They also used a 4th lot where they piled up stones from the other lots when they cleared for gardening.) These people had a chicken coop and grew most of their vegetables. They also had an old growth fir tree in their front yard and a bing cherry tree in the back yard.
In those days we had a “washing machine” which was not like those of today. No clothes dryer. Instead there was a “ringer” attached to the washing machine. After washing and rinsing, the laundry was put through the ringer for preliminary drying – like the spin cycle on today’s machines.
How was the laundry dried, you ask? Everyone had a “clothesline”. Ours went from out back porch to a pole out by the lane. The next door neighbours had theirs go by the cherry tree.
These clotheslines made good perching locations for birds.
We had some gardens too. We grew gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries. We also had a cherry tree. My dad also planted tomatoes and sometimes beans and peas in the back yard. I used to grow large pumpkins as I like (real) pumpkin pies. We also grew various flowers, which seemed to cycle as some flowers were “in” one year and another, the next year. Carnations were big one year; Snapdragons, another. We also had several varieties of roses. All these plants also helped attract birds, giving cover and food.
I do recall each Spring/Summer we would be visited by Hummingbirds. I don’t know what type, but recall bright green iridescent throats – not purple or rufous.
Lots of birds I assume were Sparrows lived around the cherry tree. They would often sit along the clothesline by the tree in a row, making soft noises as they dozed. The only other birds of colour I recall were escapees – budgies and canaries. There were many Robins about – again attracted by the cherry tree. Occasionally a woodpecker would come by and my current knowledge links with my memory to realize that these were Pileated Woodpeckers. In those days telephone poles were made of wood and the woodpeckers often landed on the sides to forage for bugs, I assume.
Almost every night I could hear an owl hooting in the neighbours’ fir tree. I did go out with a flashlight to try to find it once and did get an eye reflection. From my current knowledge of owl calls, I assume it was a Great-horned Owl
There was also the occasional Mynah Bird. An uncle used to catch birds with a seed trap. He used a raised wire cage with a stick under one end and a string attached to the stick. When an interesting bird went in to feed, he pulled the string and captured the bird. I recall him saying that he had caught around 100 different species of birds this way. He had a large cage in his back yard – perhaps 20’ X 20’ X 10’, where he kept many birds. He tried to tame a Mynah bird once and teach it to talk. An absolute failure. It was so vicious that my cousin had to wear leather gloves when he cleaned its cage. This uncle lived near “Little Mountain”, now known as Queen Elizabeth Park. In those days the reservoir at the top was open.
There were birds we called “Japanese Starlings”. They had white circles on their wings.
One bird that was conspicuously absent was the Crow. Here’s why.
In those days, most kids had a BB gun/rifle. There was a feed store called Buckerfield’s. It was a successful business and the family was wealthy. (Friends of the Hilton family in San Francisco, but that’s another story.) Buckerfield’s offered a bounty on Crow’s feet. We (myself and neighbourhood friends) got 5 cents per pair from the store.
Hence, it was very rare to see a Crow in the city. I recall seeing a couple at a large nearby undeveloped area we called “Big Bush”. But every time we saw one, someone would take a pot shot at it.
I think the absence of Crows affected the abundance and variety of birds in the city at that time. Later, when the bounty was discontinued, Crows quickly re-established themselves in the neighbourhood. Other birds became scarce. Mynah birds and the Japanese Starlings disappeared.
- By NewWestBirder