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The Advance Guard 



For several days prior to February 26 the 

 weather had been very mild and soft. A 

 few Bluebirds, Robins, and Meadowlarks 

 were in evidence, and Ducks were seen 

 winging their way north. As the supply of 

 food was not yet exhausted, the flocks of 

 Bohemian and Cedar Waxwings that have 

 adorned our campus this winter were not 

 influenced by the balmy weather. 



Sunday opened with a warm drizzle which 

 turned to a light snow in the late afternoon 

 and was the forerunner of about three days 

 of zero weather with real snow and heavy 

 north and northwest winds. Sunday evening, 

 at about 9.10, my son, a fifteen-year old 

 Scout, reported a decided movement of 

 birds above the town. The calls were dis- 

 tinctly heard and seemed to cover quite an 

 area. It was too dark to decide on the direc- 

 tion of their flight, but they must have been 

 above Ames for from twenty minutes to 

 half an hour because there was time to 

 phone to several interested persons, all of 

 whom went out and were able to hear the 

 commotion. 



Could it be that this was a band of adven- 

 turous forerunners who were driven back by 

 the storm, were confused by the lights, and 

 so flew back and forth over Ames for a time 

 before going on south. — Mrs. F. L. Battell, 

 Ames, Iowa. 



An Unusual Gathering of Migrants 



April 1, 1922, was the third day of an 

 intermittent snow and rain storm. There were 

 5 inches of snow on the ground and more 

 falling heavily. The Hudson River at Water- 

 ford, N. Y., had overflown its banks and 

 backed up into a 10-acre, level, corn-stubble 

 field, flooding a third of it. In this small 

 field was the most intense congestion of early 

 migrants I have ever witnessed here, there 

 being over 2,000 birds, at the most con- 

 servative estimate, and of twenty species. 

 This sudden storm came after the fields had 

 been bare for some time, but the birds did 



not appear to suffer and managed to glean a 

 living until three days later, the fields were 

 again bare. 



A list of the birds follows: 



Juncos were the most abundant — 500 in 

 the field and over 1,300 seen on a 5-mile 

 walk (usually in flocks of 25 to 100); 500 

 Crows (normally 10 to 20 in flock); 300 

 Horned Larks (usually flocks of 20 to 100), 

 10 Prairie Horned Larks, 20 Pipits, 15 

 Herring Gulls, 200 Red-winged Blackbirds, 

 10 Rusty Blackbirds, 200 Grackles, 100 

 Starlings, 25 Meadowlarks, 15 Killdeer, 50 

 Robins, 10 Bluebirds, 1 Sparrow Hawk, 6 

 Black Ducks, 150 Song Sparrows, 100 Tree 

 Sparrows, 20 Savanna Sparrows, 15 Vesper 

 Sparrows. There were probably twice as 

 many Sparrows but these were closely 

 counted as were all the others. At the end 

 of the third day normalcy was reached, with 

 6 species present and about 100 individuals. 

 — Edgar Bedell, Waterford, N. Y. 



The Birds of an Acre 



I append a list of birds found nesting on 

 our acre or so of lawn. This lawn is planted 

 with spruces, pines, maples, walnuts, locusts, 

 cherry trees, oak trees, and many others. 

 In addition there are many varieties of 

 shrubs. Our place is in the heart of some of 

 the highest ranges of the southern Appa- 

 lachians, at over 2,800 feet altitude. The 

 list follows: 



Robin, Wood Thrush, Bluebird, Bob- 

 White, Chickadee. Chipping Sparrow, Song 

 Sparrow, Least Flycatcher, Catbird, Chim- 

 ney Swift, Phcebe, Acadian Flycatcher, 

 Baltimore Oriole, Bewick's Wren, Cedar 

 Waxwing. 



In addition to the foregoing the following 

 have been seen during the spring and sum- 

 mer months. Many of these also nest on the 

 place, but we have not found their nest. 



Red-eyed Vireo, Cardinal, Wood Pewee, 

 American Woodcock, Louisiana Water- 

 Thrush, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Yel- 

 low Warbler, Goldfinch, Blue-Gray Gnat- 



(145) 



