134 



THE OOLOGISt 



pair of birds and only one set allowed 

 to be taken. 



We have a wonderful amount of 

 bird life in Alberta around our lakes, 

 sloughs and forests but our legislat- 

 ors have made it impossible for a nat- 

 uralist to avail himself of it, doubtess 

 in ignorance of the subject. 



A. D. Henderson. 



SHARP-SHINS AND PILEATEDS 



Several seasons back on the 5th of 

 May I paid a visit to my old stamping 

 grounds five or six miles down the 

 river at a wooded uninhabited region 

 that has always been a fine place for 

 birds both large and small. I was up 

 at 4 a. m. and was soon hitting the 

 high places oh the river road. It was 

 quite chilly and ice had formed on 

 the little pools and puddles on the 

 road. After the sun got out through 

 it soon warmed up and turned out to 

 be a fine morning. 



On the way over the big hill, the 

 steep and precipitous sides of which 

 are covered with much hemlocks, 1 

 had on a former trip seen a Sharp-shin 

 sticking pretty close. I looked for 

 Sharpy when I went over and she was 

 there but I kept right on for the Flats. 

 At the Flats the road cuts across and 

 does not get near the river for several 

 miles, so I cut through the woods 

 towards the river. I found a Red- 

 shouldered Hawk's nest but didn't 

 take time to go up. At the second 

 Flat I found quite a little life. A 

 pileated Woodpecker cackled fre- 

 quently, a Red-shouldered Hawk or 

 two was about and I saw several 

 black squirrels. In the thick hemlock 

 swamp I scared a pair of Great Blue 

 Herons out of the large trees and a 

 Horned Owl from some hemlocks. As 

 I circled about in the swamp a female 

 Sharp-shinned got very noisy and stuck 

 close by, so I began looking carefully 

 through the smaller hemlocks. I soon 



saw the nest thirty feet up in a heni- 

 lock and climbing up I found it was 

 all ready for eggs. I then went to 

 the Flat along the river and on the 

 gravel bar saw several Kill-deer and 

 Spotted Sandpipers, also a pair of 

 Greater Yellow-legs. In the water 

 near by was a lone male Lesser Scaup 

 Duck. 



While going along slowly I saw a 

 Pileated fly from a giant old sycamore. 

 Going over that way I sav/ several 

 large holes in a' large dead section 

 high up. One hole looked new and 

 on the ground was a large quantity of 

 chips scattered about. I pounded ti^-- 

 tree hard and out came Mrs. Pileated. 

 She protested loudly and soon left. 

 Concealing myself I waited and ^diy 

 soon both birds came back. After 

 looking about carefully the female 

 entered the nest. I was surprised to 

 find the nest tree so close to the river, 

 as I had twice before found their nest 

 back in the swamp. This sycamore 

 was a hard proposition and an exami- 

 nation of the chips showed that the 

 nest was in a very rotten section of 

 the tree so no attempt was made to 

 get up to it. I kept watch afterwards 

 and found that this tree is used nearly 

 every year. 



On the way back over the big hill I 

 found Sharpy still there and quite 

 nervous. It didn't take me long to lo- 

 cate the nest 50 feet up in a hemlock. 

 Later on I got a nice set of four from 

 each of these Sharp-shins' nest. Be- 

 fore I got home I saw an adult Marsh 

 Hawk hawking about over a meadow 

 and during the morning noted quite 

 .a few small birds but nothing unusual. 

 — R. B. Simpson 



