. Bulletin No. 26. 41 



ALL DAY WITH THE BIRDS. 



Ever since the writer and Mr. W. L. Dawson secured the horizon of 

 102 species of birds for Lorain County, on May 17, 1898, the ornitho- 

 logical possibilities of a day during the height of the spring migration 

 have been constantly kept in view. Accordingly, the migrations of the 

 present spring were carefully watched for the desired day. May 8 was 

 finally decided upon not because it promised the largest horizon, for we 

 could not foresee the weather and other conditions a week in advance, 

 but because that was the day on which our work could be best arranged 

 for the necessary absence from town, and because the migrations were 

 manifestly a week in advance of last year. 



The day dawned wet and lowering after a night of showers which again 

 made the use of wheels impossible. In defiance of the dismal prospect 

 we were in the field at 3:30 a. m., just as the earliest birds aw^akened, 

 and had recorded forty-five species before the rain again began — about 

 4:15. During the hour and a half shower nothing new was seen, so we 

 came home, recording fourteen more species on the way. Mr. Dawson's 

 other duties made it impossible for him to continue the day's work 

 further, so the writer was forced to brave the elements alone, with many 

 a word of encouragement for the day's work, "Because a rainy day 

 record can never equal that which still stands." The prospect was 

 certainly dismal. 



A half hour at breakfast — my good wife had the luncheon ready — 

 gave a good preparation for the tramp across fields and thru woods 

 before finally taking to the "electrics." This short tramp of three 

 miles all still within the distinctively Oberlin region, swelled the list to 

 eighty-one in spite of another shower of xcet rain, which added to the 

 discomfort of wet garments, a dripping cap and wet field glasses. But 

 the work had to be pushed into other fields furnishing another fauna. 



The hour spent on the cars in getting to Lorain and the lake shore 

 resulted in nothing in the way of further records, but was practically 

 that time lost — cut out of the best part of the day. Wheeling weather 

 would have made this loss of time unnecessary. 



Arriving at the lake shore at 11 o'clock, under a threatening sky, the 

 prohecy of my busy companion seemed certain to be fulfilled. But there 

 was no turning back now. There were no shore birds on the beach, nor 

 any birds but swallows skimming the lake's smooth surface. A few 

 swallows were eagerly feeding in a small swamp at Lorain, which proved 

 to be the only Tree and Rough-winged Swallows of the day's record. 



