144- Bird -Lore 



park. They read: ''It is estimated that not less than two inches of water 

 fell in that vicinity during the fifteen minutes, while three inches would 

 not be considered an extravagant estimate. The hailstones ranged in size 

 from one-fourth to one and one-fourth inches in diameter, and were 

 generally almost spherical. A gusty wind accompanied the hail and rain, 

 and a velocity of forty-eight miles per hour prevailed from 9:13 P. M. to 

 9:24 P. M., with an extreme one -mile velocity of sixty miles at 9:20 P. M." 

 There can be no doubt that the hailstones ranged larger in certain areas 

 than one and one-fourth inches; of that I assured myself at the time. 



Loring Park is a spot favored by our summer resident birds, and great 

 numbers of Bluejays, Robins, Bronzed Grackles, four or five species of 

 Woodpeckers, and hosts of smaller birds more arboreal in habit — especially 

 of the Vireo and Flycatcher families — are always to be seen here in the 

 summer. Strange to say, a nest in this entire area of thirty or forty 

 acres is a rarity; last year there was one — a Robin's; this year not one 

 was built in the park. It is distinctively, then, a day feeding- and play- 

 ground for the birds, but to few species a roosting place. It is due to 

 these facts that so many species so frequently seen in the park in daytime 

 were not to be found among the dead, mutilated and maimed birds on 

 the day following the storm. 



My interest in the bird life of this little beauty spot led me to make 

 an early reconnaissance on the following morning. It was an unpleasant 

 sight to behold old and familiar trees robbed of their protecting limbs 

 and often uprooted, but, saddest of all, the park was a veritable avian 

 graveyard. At the very entrance I picked up a Red -eyed Vireo, which 

 had been knocked from the trees by the merciless hail and drowned in 

 the torrents beneath. There were in evidence many others, yet the small 

 and dull-colored birds were difficult to find, many being washed away into 

 the lake near the center of the park or into the street mains, or lost in 

 the accumulated debris of leaves, sticks and sand. In a few steps I picked 

 up a score of Robins and Bluejays, and thus it was all over certain areas 

 of the park. The Robins and Jays were of the few roosting species and 

 suffered proportionately, constituting most of the dead birds found. The 

 Bronzed Grackles, so numerous in daytime, were not to be found among 

 the dead, indicating that they did not roost at all in the park. This 

 was also true of many other species common in the locality. I had 

 for days previous noticed a number of Black and White Creeping and 

 Yellow-rumped Warblers in the park, but found none on the ground or 

 among the debris; yet they could have been easily overlooked, for no doubt 

 many hundreds of smaller birds found death or injury in the path of the 

 storm, and could not be found for this reason. Many of the large birds 

 were on this account found simply by accident — by a head, a wing or tail 

 projecting from a pile of rubbish. 



