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Friday, December 29, 2006

Bird Bottle or Martin Pot

As Matt said in the comments on the previous post, the object below is a replica of a Colonial bird house or feeder. According to the package insert, the use of these dates back at least to 1700. The original of this one was excavated from the yard of the James Geddy House. The opening on the larger side is affixed to a wall or post and a perch is place through the tab and into the opening in the bottom. (Matt is correct that it was upside down in the photo.)

Early settlers were not bird watchers so much as that they valued the local avians as bug zappers and wanted to encourage their proximity. I am hoping our tame chickadees will like this addition to the ornamental bird house on the sitting porch where they nested last summer.

Thanks, nyv, for a really neat Christmas gift!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi threecollie! Forgive me, but I've tagged you for a little meme-thingy. The rules are on today's post, if you would like to participate!

threecollie said...

Hi rm, sounds like fun, I will get to it as soon as I get a chance.
Thanks.
I will have NO trouble at all thinking of weird things, nope, not a bit. lol

Rurality said...

I am so jealous of your tame chickadees! (I used to think I was bird-taming-deficient until I learned that our local chickadees are NOT the same species that will come to you hand like that.)

threecollie said...

Hi rurality and thanks for visiting.
We love the little things. They are so very bossy and bold. If the feeders are empty they let us know it! They are even smart enough to choose to complain to either my son or I....we are the only ones who fill feeders. (We are also the only ones who can get them to sit on our hands. lol)
Sorry you have a different species, because the black-capped, which is what we have, are a lot of fun.

R.Powers said...

Now we need to see it mounted and working.
(no rush, I know you have this thing called winter up there)

threecollie said...

Hi FC, yeah, we do. We lock the door to the sitting porch when the winds start to howl and don't unlock it until April...it is very hard to lock and unlock because this old monster house has settled a bit....so it will be a while, but I am eager!