Tales and Tails from Stage Coach Lodge
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
UNCLE WALT’S CHICKADEES
Those happy little chickadees are so hardy that they stay north all winter and are very happy that their people friends keep them supplied with birdseed and suet. Uncle Walt has made an observation that few of us know about.
Uncle Walt was speaking. "One April day I noticed an unusual amount of activity out of a back window. The chickadees had taken over a wren’s nest which they do every winter, because the wrens aren’t here until April or May. I knew they had had a brood of babies, but today they were attempting to fly! Father Chickadee was on a branch, and Mother Chickadee was on the ground urging the babies out of the nest. When a young one falls from the nest flapping its wings, Mother flies under the bird, breaking its fall, then flies it to the branch to Father who flaps his wings. When the babies are lined up, both parents fly off to get a bug, and when they return, they try to entice each baby to fly closer to get the bug. By the end of the day, they all fly away."
While we thought about that, Uncle Walt concluded, "The next day, the wrens took over the nest!"
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Ruth S. Nash lives summers in a seven-room log cabin built in 1926 in Alton, New Hampshire. She and her husband bought it and 22 acres of land in 1958 when the oldest of their three daughters was 14. All nature lovers, they eagerly absorbed nature’s ways of handling life, and by the time grand children arrived, had a large repertoire of animal and bird stories. Now six great grandchildren are treated by these and other stories which help to make them self-reliant, curious and environmentally sensitive. Tales and Tails from Stage Coach Lodge is unique in its true stories, but also is intended to encourage young people to be observant and understanding of the needs of nature, to "live and let live", and to learn to express themselves creatively when writing a story. An invitation to write some stories, and a quiz of matching tails to birds or animals is also included.
About the Author
The author of Tales and Tails from Stage Coach Lodge
is a native New Englander who, with her husband, bought the log cabin lodge in
1958. The family, including three
children, vacationed there weekends and summers until 1978 when the author
retired from her work as a professional Girl Scout administrator. She and her husband moved to Florida but
spent four summer months every year at their Stage Coach Lodge in Alton,
NH. By then, the grand children were
coming along. Her husband died of
Alzheimers in 1990, Ruth became a
student at Florida Southern College four years later and took a course in
Creative Writing . She graduated at age
80 and has since taken a correspondence course in writing for children. She recently wrote a book, High Seas to High Stakes, which was
published in 2000. Now she has
collected stories she has written for her six Great Grandchildren most of which
involve wildlife and the environment, and she believes many other children will
delight themselves with these tales of tails.
The book includes a page of tails to be identified and a section to
encourage children to create stories of their own.
Ruth S. Nash is a resident
of Harbour Heights, Florida, but spends four summer months at her seven-room
log cabin off Stage Coach Road overlooking
Wolfeboro Bay, New Hampshire. Stage Coach Road is the original route 150 or so
years ago that went from Wolfeboro to Concord, New Hampshire.