The Wilson Bulletin — No. 47 51 



AN "ALL DAY" BIRD STUDY. 



BY BURTIS H. WILSON. 



I left the house on the morning of the 15th, at 5 a. m., 

 returning for breakfast at 6, and then returning to the fields to 

 remain until 12 o'clock. The night had been very cold and a 

 heavy dew had fallen, making the air so chilly that it was 

 nearly noon before my overcoat could be discarded. It was 

 an ideal day for bird ob.servation, as there was no wind, and 

 the cold of the morning hours made the birds sluggish, so that 

 it was nearly noon before the Warblers began to seek the 

 higher tree-tops. I noticed, however, that the cold did not 

 prevent the Warblers from singing almost incessantly, even 

 as early as I started out. During the day eggs were found in 

 the nests of Crows, Blue Jays, Mourning Doves and Brown 

 Thrashers, also a Robin's nest with one egg and two newly 

 hatched young. 



On account of the extremely backward spring, not only 

 the migrations, but the nest- building, is at least two weeks 

 later than usual with our early arrivals. After losing about 

 forty-five minutes at the dinner table, I again sought the 

 fields, spending the time until 5:15, when we sat down to sup- 

 per. At 5:45 Mr. Montgomery's son and I started to drive 

 back to town. We reached Milan, on the Rock River, at 7 

 o'clock, where I entered an electric car and ended my day's 

 observations. Now comes what is to me the interesting part 

 of my story. 



During the day I did not see Red-winged Blackbirds, 

 House Wrens, Yellow Warblers, Meadowlarks, Bank Swal- 

 lows, or Wood Thrushes, until on returning to town we ap- 

 proached within three miles of Rock River, when one by one 

 these birds were seen. This is also true of these birds on my 

 way to the farm on the previous day, and al«o of several trips 

 made in former .seasons over the same ground, the only excep- 

 tion being the House Wren, which usually nests around the 

 farm buildings, but has been seen there only^a few times so 

 far this year. Only one Purple Martin was seen during the 

 day, but if we had reached Milan a little earlier more would, 

 without doubt, have been seen, as they nest in the village. 

 But if I had been early enough to see the Martins, I would 



