Outside the city limits the bluebird is the earliest to 

 greet us with his spring song. The song-sparrow may arrive 

 the same morning as the robin and bluebird. The cheerily of 

 the robin, the trual-ly of the bluebird and the sweet-sweet- 

 sweet-very merry cheer of the song sparrow are welcome 

 sounds especially if the winter has been severe. 



The redwing and rusty blackbirds, bronzed grackles 

 meadowlark and junco are among the earliest arrivals. 



After the thrill of these first bird songs is over there is no 

 more delight to every music lover than the beautiful notes of 

 the fox sparrow. Some years, as this, he goes to his northern 

 home by another route, so very few are seen and I feel some- 

 thing has been lost out of the spring migration. 



Herring gulls are flying over the river as early as this 

 and crows have been cawing for some time. Some of our 

 members who live farther away from the city will report 

 hawks, ducks, geese and woodcock the last of March and 

 first of April. The hawks seen are the American roughlegged 

 (rare), American sparrow, broadwinged, cooper's, duck (very 

 rare), marsh, pigeon, redshouldered, red tailed, and sharp- 

 shinned. Some years the Club on its walks near the city 

 has seen the Am. sparrow, cooper's, marsh, redshouldered, 

 and sharp-shinned hawks; the (Canada goose, sheldrake and 

 black duck. When the Club takes its first walk we list about 

 ten different species including the English sparrow, which 

 we never count again. 



The last blackbird, the cowbird, arrives early in April 

 (it has been seen the last of March) and also our 

 first flycatcher, phoebe. Some morning the rattle of 

 the belted kingfisher will catch our attention when 

 our walk is by the river and we will see his blue and white 

 plumage as he flies over the water. 



Some seasons purple finches greet us the last of March or 

 first of April with their beautiful notes. This year they were 

 quite plentiful. A flock of cedar waxwings has been around 

 and goldfinches in winter plumage are no uncommon sight. 



A brown creeper and white throated sparrow may be 

 reported. The birds that came earliest are becoming more 

 numerous, so by mid April there will be some excitement on 

 a morning walk, for more migrants are due at this time. 

 The first warbler, the yellow palm, comes with his con- 

 stantly wagging tail, the golden crowned kinglet and the 

 ruby crowned of which Aububon wrote that its notes were 

 canary like and on holding one in his hand said "so this is 

 the tiny body of the songster from which came the loud 

 notes I heard." Arthur G. Staples has recently called him 

 "a little spark of God's eternal promise weaving a melody to 



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