A Glimpse of Winter Bird Life in Delaware 



BY CHARLES J. PENNOCK 



It was only fairly daylight, on February 4, 1904, when I 

 reached Wilmington, and no birds h;ul been seen. Leaving Wil- 

 mington by train at half-past seven, two large Hawks, probably 

 Buteos, were seen perched above the niarsh along the Christiana 

 creek on the outskirts of the city, watching for an early mouse 

 astir, and forty or fifty Crows in small squads were distributed 

 over the frozen marsh and bleak hillsides, with apparently small 

 prospects of a very substantial meal. Bird-life at this time of 

 day, with a fierce, cold wind blowing, was not much in evidence 

 from a car window — two or three Meadow Larks, a flock of 

 twenty-five or thirty Titlarks, and a single Sparrow Hawk, 

 Cooper's Hawk and Turkey Buzzard were the only other birds 

 seen before reaching Dover, with the exception of a lone adult 

 Bald Eagle, perched on a dead tree not far distant from the rail- 

 road, and entirely indifferent to the cold and wind. At this 

 season I suppose the Eagles must depend almost exclusively on 

 carrion for their subsistence. They are not abundant about my 

 home in Chester county, Penna., but I have known of three or 

 four appearing in winter during the past few years, and they 

 have frequented the vicinity of such a source of food supi)ly. 



Arriving at Dover at nine o'clock I tramped for two hours 

 through several inches of snow, across open fields, through some 

 small pine growth and sapling thickets, and nowhere found any 

 abundance of birds. I observed a flock of J uncos, a few Tree 

 Sparrows, a few Song Sparrows, a pair of Cardinals, two Blue 

 Jays, one or two Pox Sparrows, a solitary Downy Woodpecker, 

 and a couple of Red-shouldered Hawks, the latter at very 

 close range near the railroad track. Crows were quite numer- 

 ous, and during the entire tramp, excepting when in the timber, 

 I believe I was at no time out of the sight of a Turkey Buzzard. 



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