BERRY TIME OVER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 5 August 1931, Page 8

BERRY TIME OVER

AUGUST IS BIRD MONTH Gone are the Autumn berries by August, and Nature offers the birds a rather - bare table. The winter birdcarrying capacity of the countryside is limited, grid (Mr Johannes Andersen estimates that out of all the birds reared every spring-summer not 25 per cent.. can possibly survive. The way to help them is to provide- more food, more food trees, more artificial shelter beyond / reach of cats and rats. In making August Bird Month, the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society hopes that bird lover* will envisage not only the winter famine but the', tremendous effort which birds must put forth in the spring if their army of defence against insect pests is to he maintained at fighting strength. Just as the nestlings are a special toll on insect-food, so they are a tax on parental vitality. Young birds must he fed frequently. In some varieties the parent birds carry food to the nest from 300 times to 600 times a clay! A gigantic task, worthy of some winter ' feeding.