DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 45 



where we walked about last week with dry feet. Thus a trip 

 to the.5e marshes is alwnys savored with the thought of a new 

 discovery, and one rarely returns disappointed. 



There are no extensive patches of woodland along the creek. 

 For the most part there is merely a fringe of trees. Go a short 

 distance back at almost any point, and we come directly to cul- 

 tivated fields and orchards, and in many places these come 

 right down to the creek bank. 



But the marshes of the upper creek are wilder to-day than 

 they were a score of years ago, and are looked upon by the 

 farmer as a " has been." Thirty years ago these marshes were 

 well ditched; there were high banks furnished with flood-gates, 

 and hay was harvested where now there is an expanse of wild- 

 rice and alder thickets. The flood-gates are gone, and what re- 

 mains of the banks is fast disappearing. The lower creek, too, 

 may be considered a thing of the past; that is commercially. 

 Up to five years ago there were a good many canal-boats towed 

 up as far as the little village of Parry, where they were loaded 

 with building sand taken from the creek's bank. Since the 

 abandonment of this industry, the creek is given over entirely 

 to the fishermen, gunners and pleasure craft, with the exception 

 of an occasional scow, laden with fertilizer, which is drifted up 

 with the tide. The old sand banks near Parry are of interest, 

 as here is found quite a colony of Bank and Rough-winged 

 Swallows. The Kingfisher also finds here a good nesting 

 ground. 



The marshes of the upper creek furnish favorite feeding 

 grounds for the Great Blue, Green and Night Herons, and dur- 

 ing the spring and fall great numbers of Sandpipers, Yellowlegs, 

 etc., are to be found. 



I believe that we find more marked changes with the seasons 

 in a fresh tide-water marsh than anywhere else. During Jan- 

 uary and February these marshes are rather desolate-looking 

 places, covered as they are with the remnants of last year's 

 aquatic vegetation. At this season, however, they are the 

 hunting grounds of the big Hawks, while Grebes and Wild 

 Ducks may be found about the creek. A few Kingfishers 

 usually spend the winter, and during the winter of 1906-7 a 



