Monthly Bulletin 3 



Whip-poor-wills called nightly through most of the summer, being 

 frequently in the dooryard. They have also lately been heard up to the 

 14th of September. On June 6th a "nest" of this species was located near 

 Sunrise Ledge, and the unusual opportunity of observing this interesting 

 bird with her eggs was thus afforded a number of our visitors. 



A pair of hairy woodpeckers chiseled out their home in a tall hickory 

 not fifty yards from the farmhouse. Brown creepers were known to be 

 nesting in our Mohawk Woods, and their quaint httle songs, fitting in so 

 well with the soughing of the pines through which they wandered, could be 

 heard here throughout the summer. Orioles, catbirds, robins, barn swal- 

 lows, tree swallows, redstarts, yellow warblers, song sparrows, chipping 

 sparrows and chewinks have all come into our dooryard for nesting-ma- 

 terial, making use of the silks, cotton, feathers, etc., put out for their 

 special use, and opportunity has been afforded to watch most of these in 

 their interesting work of nest-construction. 



Ospreys have several times been observed here, wandering, perhaps, 

 from their cherished abode, a huge nest occupied by them for many years, 

 overlooking a secluded little pond not far away. 



Our beautiful soaring red-shouldered hawks seem now an essential 

 part of the wild life of our Sanctuary, and their return each season is 

 eagerly looked for. This year on the 6th of April we found them nesting 

 in their favorite haunt, a century-old pine on the shore of Woodland Pond. 



The banding of wild birds, now under the control of the Biological 

 Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture, is becoming an 

 important and valuable feature in the study of ornithology, and this work 

 has been undertaken here as far as circumstances would allow. About 

 eighty birds, representing nineteen species, have been banded here this 

 season. 



Feeding of the birds has been kept up all summer, and such species 

 as the purple finch, song sparrow, chipping sparrow, hairy woodpecker and 

 downy woodpecker have brought their young to our window-shelves or 

 suet-cages for food. 



Additions and improvements are constantly being made in our ex- 

 hibits and display of bird material at the Sanctuary office, and a stock 

 of helpful books on the various subjects pertaining to the study of birds, 

 flowers, trees and insects may always be found on sale here. 



A GNAT -CATCHER THRILL 



It had been raining all the night before, and till the middle of the 



afternoon of April 30, when it cleared sufficiently for Mr. M to 



go afield. He had been gone only a short time when he returned with 

 the announcement that he had seen a blue-gray gnatcatcher in an ad- 

 joining field. He having gone outdoors again, I went to the door, where 

 I found him watching a bird in our garden. As he turned, I exclaimed, 

 "Oh, here is your blue-gray gnatcatcher!"; and there within a dozen 

 feet of me was the handsome blue-gray bird with tail spread, giving one 

 the impression of being half tail, which is not far wrong. In over twenty- 

 three years of bird study I think that seeing PoUoptildlccBrulea for the 

 first time produced the biggest thrill I have ever experienced in birddom. 



Nellie M. Mason. 

 North Orange, Mass. 



