24 BIRDS OF SWOPE PARK 



still hoping to find it as a nesting bird in the Park, for it is 

 quite common during migration, and is found nesting in other 

 suburbs of the city. 



No claim is made of having been able to get the exact 

 number of birds, but it is thought that the error was always 

 in the form of an under estimate rather than an over estimate. 

 Very rarely, I think, was any individual bird listed twice, but 

 it is evident that some might have been silent and hidden and 

 have escaped notice even in early June. 



The month of June was selected, because by that time, 

 the migrating birds have passed on, and only the summer resi- 

 dents remain. Moreover, in most cases, at least, the young 

 birds have not yet left the nest. In cases like the Tufted Tit- 

 mouse and Chickadee where some young had left the nest, the 

 birds were listed in groups; for instance, a flock of five or 

 six Chickadees in a single clump of bushes were listed as one 

 nesting pair or family. 



It was a most fascinating study. I always felt repaid for 

 the discomforts and fatigue of rising at four o'clock in the 

 morning and wading out in the dew-laden grass and weeds and 

 scrambling for miles through the brush, sometimes over soggy 

 ground or through slimy mud. Frequently I was soaked to the 

 waist by the wet foliage, while again, the mosquitoes added 

 to the discomforts. 



But to hear those wonderful calls of the birds! To see the 

 morning mist hang lazily over the green treetops along the 

 Blue River, to see the sun rise in indescribable glory over the 

 rolling jumble of tree-clad hills, and to feel that I was part 

 of the whole great plan of nature all this was worth twice 



