A Day with Lake County Birds 59 



A DAY WITH LAKE COUNTY BIRDS. 



BY F. N. SHANKLAND. 



The morning of May 10, 1918, dawned bright aud clear, 

 and by six o'clock, four of us had eaten our breakfasts and 

 set out for an all-day bird census. Our objective was Jop- 

 lin's Woods, where birds of all kinds are always abun- 

 dant and migrating warblers especially numerous during 

 the month of May. Through this woods runs a small creek 

 which empties into , Chagrin River about a mile further 

 down. The creek is bordered by beautiful wooded hillsides, 

 with just enough swamp land, second growth and black- 

 berry thickets, to make it a veritable birds' paradise. This 

 little wilderness had been left to itself in the midst of the 

 neighboring farms, and if it had been designed especially 

 for the birds it could not have served the purpose better. 



AYe had made thorough preparation for this bird cen- 

 sus, and had listed all the birds in that vicinity, so that 

 they could readily be checked off as observed. We were 

 fortunate in having selected an excellent day for bird study 

 and we were kept busy making records from six o'clock in 

 the morning until late in the afternoon. We had planned 

 to stay three or four hours in this particular woods and 

 then go by automobile to Mentor Marsh, located some eight 

 miles distant on the shores of Lake Erie. There we ex- 

 pected to add to our lists some water birds that could not 

 be found elsewhere. 



During the day we succeeded in recording eighty-two 

 species in all, which is the best record that any of us had 

 made in Lake County up to that time. Most of these were 

 common birds, and not more than four or five of the species 

 recorded Avould be considered as rare or even scarce. Fur- 

 thermore, when we checked up our lists in the evening we 

 were surprised to find that we had been unable to record 

 a dozen or more fairly common species which we knew were 

 present in the vicinity. 



