Archive for December, 2009
Windchimes go back in history almost 5,000 years and are thought to be one of the world’s first known musical instruments. Primitive windchimes have been discovered at archeological sites in Southeast Asia and are thought to date about 3000 B.C. At that time, they were usually made of bone, bamboo or other wood, stone or shells, and were believed to ward off evil spirits. Indonesian digs indicate that farmers were using windchimes and other sound-producing wind instruments to scare birds and other animals from their crops and predict wind and weather patterns during ancient times. By 2000 B.C., windchimes had been independently developed along the Mediterranean Sea and in ancient Egypt, where they had been cast in bronze. Ancient Celtic tribes used them to intimidate enemies by making wooded areas appear haunted. Windchimes were also useful for ancient people who lived on or around the sea, as they were believed to provide evidence of impending storms and the possibility of choppy water. Around 1100 B.C., the Chinese created a bell that didn’t have a clapper, known as a yong-zhong and used in their spiritual rituals. Following the yong-zhong, the Chinese developed a form of the modern wind bell called the feng-ling. The feng-ling was hung from the eaves of Chinese shrines, temples, pagodas and caves, believed to be a positive religious talisman that would attract benevolent spirits. The usage of a version of the feng-ling spread from China to Japan and eventually to the Western world, when Asian art, design and philosophy began to influence tastes in Europe and the United States.
Over time, the secular world began the frequent use of windchimes as home and garden decor–sometimes to scare away negative supernatural influence, but often because the sounds prove soothing, calming, or somehow pleasant.
People who enjoy bird feeders are often extremely frustrated with a flock of “bully birds” descending upon their feeders, draining them of all the food and chasing away their favorite songbirds in the process. Some of the most common varieties of “bully birds” are blackbirds, grackles, pigeons, and house sparrows. These invaders are usually attracted to a bird feeder by readily available birdseed or suet on the ground or in easy-access feeders.
Some solutions are to lock out the bully birds, which are usually larger in size, by limiting the accessibility of feeding ports. Keep the areas under your bird feeders as clean as possible to keep pigeons away. Selecting only certain kinds of foods to dispense in your feeders can be beneficial, because bully birds tend to prefer bread, corn, wheat and sunflower seeds. Finches will be drawn to hanging tube feeders with only nyjer (thistle) seeds. Cardinals, chickadees, and nuthatches like safflower seed in hopper or tray feeders.