BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 



2 45 



It is always interesting to watch this bird in the fields with its friends, the 

 cows. During September and October it is often found in flocks of considerable 

 size. 



200 [498] Agelaius phoeniceus (Linn.). 

 Red-winged Blackbird. 



Abundant summer resident ; March 6 to August 21, October ; average date 

 of arrival for eight years, March 17. 



Eggs : May 23 to June 18. 



The Red-winged Blackbird is an abundant bird, breeding in all fresh 

 marshes by the rivers and ponds of Essex County. It especially enjoys the 

 bogs among the sand dunes where it breeds, and from there it visits the beach 

 as well as the salt marsh. As a varied conversationalist the Red-winged Black- 

 bird has no equal, and its song always brings up happy memories of spring. As 

 early as July 1st the females and young gather in small scattered flocks, together 

 with a few adult males. By the middle of July the flocks are moderate in size, 

 while by the end of ihe month they have gone up into the hundreds, composed 

 of females and young, while only a few red-shouldered males are to be seen. I 

 have heard a male sing his quonk-quer-ree as late as August 12th, although both 

 adult males and songs are rare at that date. The flocks of young then diminish 

 in size and by the end of August are generally gone. Then ensues a period 

 when Red-winged Blackbirds are rarely seen, but in the latter part of September 

 and in October large flocks of the more northern birds appear. 



Their nests among the dunes and near the salt marshes are in bushes large 

 and small, and are frequently made of eel-grass (Zostera marina). Maynard 1 

 says : " I have found the nests on an island in the marshes of Essex River, 

 placed on trees twenty feet from the ground ! In one case, where the nest was 

 placed on a slender sapling fourteen feet high, that swayed with the slightest 

 breeze, the nest was constructed after the manner of our Baltimore Orioles, 



prettily woven of the bleached sea-weed called eel-grass It was six inches 



deep." 



During the copious rains of June, 1903, many of the bogs were flooded and 

 many young destroyed, especially in the Topsfield and Wenham marshes. 



1 C. J. Maynard: The Naturalist's Guide, p. 122, 1S70. 



