To the editor:

So you know where your Hummingbird Feeder is and you have extra sugar to make your own nectar? (1 cup sugar boiled with 4 cups water – no red coloring needed). Well, good for you.(Of course I can only write this as I already have my feeder out. ) There’s a small contest in my neighborhood as to who sees the first hummer. I don’t even try as I am so high and windy. 

Before my May letter is written, orioles and catbirds also will have arrived so be ready the first week with cheap oranges sliced in half and a hanging container of grape jelly. How welcome they will be.  

I keep a very spasmodic garden diary and was delighted to see that in 2017, April 10, the first goldfinches came. I am still waiting. I have been told that my clean and empty tree swallow houses will also attract Blue Birds which have been seen in abundance in the area. So I keep looking and hoping

Also in the first week of May the lovely shad bush opens in swampy areas.. If you are one of the lucky ones to see them, enjoy during their fleeting blooming and tell a neighbor. 

Sidney Tynan

Little Compton