xt7jh98zct60_42 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7jh98zct60/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7jh98zct60/data/2015ms086.dao.xml Bevins, Martha 0.05 Cubic Feet 55 items archival material 2015ms086 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Martha Bevins letters to Tom McCarthy Radio broadcasting. Agriculture -- Kentucky. Birds Women air pilots. 1958 April 29 text 1958 April 29 2016 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7jh98zct60/data/2015ms086/Box_ms_42/Folder_1/Item_42/1958_4_29_Bevins_Mockingbird.pdf 1958 April 29 1958 1958 April 29 section false xt7jh98zct60_42 xt7jh98zct60 I — !
gorning View Kentucky .
29 April 1958
Hello Mr. McCarthy,

, Yesterday, like springtime, Seemed most laggard of arrival, but
was well worth the waiting. Once,again, of a morning, I shall
carry my little transistor radio through tree patch and pond-
field with me. I have not been taking it along with me for the
past several months, as there was nothing to hear.

During the program, when your mocker-being—a—cardinal Was coming
through so clearly, I shatched up the tiny set and dashed out to
find a local Mocking Bird. While practically all birds stake out
summer territorial claims in proportion to their size and needs,
and edfend it vigorously, the mocking Birds are more militant
about their property than most. Consequently, I Was Sure that
should I bring the voice of another Hooker through invisible

but positive boundaries into the domain of one of the local
fellows, the result would be both interesting and audible.

There are four Mocking Bird families in the area, but my quest
was not successful. It was a bit too early in the season, with
nesting sites no more than under consideration, and by the time
I found a Meeker at home, singing lazily to himself atop a
scraggly, leafless locust, yours was no longer emerging blithely
from the radio. In a few weeks, when nests have been built and
occupied, I anticipate a far more tumultuous, one—sided, long—
range argument than occurred several years ago when Mr. Wheat '
strove mightily to drive your duail's voice from the tree patch,
as a Meeker is a more furious and officious bird than a Quail.

»«~ Of all the peculiarities attendant upon the arrival of spring this
year, the most interesting has been the unusual slowness of large .
trees in responding to warmer weather. They are leafing out rapidly
now, but for quite a while the big fellows of the tree patch towered
in almost total dormancy above shrub and sapling which had burst
into bloom and leaf with the first touches of rising temperature.

I oan think of only one'possible explanation for this erratic

behavior. The ground Was bare during much of our coldest weather,

and this cold was prolonged late into March, with the result that

the earth Was chilled to a much greater depth than in ordinary

winters. as spring warmed the surface soil, shrubs and little trees

of comparatively shallow root Systems were stirred into activity.

However, the larger trees, rooting far down where Warmth hadnot

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