370 



THE OOLOGIST 



Early Solitary Sandpipers in Philadel- 

 phia County, Pa. 



It is well known that the Solitary 

 Sandpiper breeds in the mountains of 

 Pennsylvania, and like certain other 

 birds of the Canadian fauna of this 

 state, it is one of our earliest (if not 

 our first) migrant to appear in the 

 fall — late summer, rather, I should 

 say. 



Until four years ago I gave the 

 Water Thrush first place, as our first 

 "Fall" migrant with August 1st 

 as my earliest date of its ap- 

 pearance, but now the Solitary Sand- 

 piper ururps this species, and is the 

 earliest bird of any species occurring 

 here, to come in the "Pall." 



On July 10, 1908, while hunting for 

 a Florida Gallinule nest in a cat-tail 

 march at Port Richmond, Philadelphia 

 County, Pennsylvania, I observed two 

 Solitary Sandpipers, which constitute 

 my earliest record. They were togeth- 

 er on a small "bar" of mud in the 

 marsh and as tame as all new arrivals 

 of this species, which is our tamest 

 Sandpiper, and excepting the Spotted 

 Sandpiper, the easiest one occurring 

 here to identify. 



On July 18, 1911, I saw a Solitary 

 Sandpiper along the Frankford Creek, 

 at Frankford, Philadelphia County, in 

 company with a Spotted Sandpiper, 

 and it was also seen on the same sand 

 bar on July 25th following. 



I have numerous August records of 

 arrivals of the Solitary Sandpiper in 

 the vicinity of Philadelphia, and the 

 latest I have seen the species here has 

 been August 10th (2 records). It oc- 

 curs in the Spring from April 14th to 

 May 30th, generally occurring in May, 

 but on June 9, 1907, at Ocean View, 

 Cape May County, New Jersey, I saw 

 a single individual of this species at 

 the seashore where it is rare (c-f Wil- 



son Bulletin, Dec, 1909, p. 225) at all 

 times. 



Richard F. Miller. 

 Harrowgate, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Winter Notes. 



The past winter was mild until 

 about the first of the year when it se,t 

 in in earnest and we had a severe 

 winter. Zero mornings were common 

 and one morning it reached 40 below. 

 We had two feet of snow in the woods 

 and twenty to twenty-four inches of 

 iec on the river 



Redpolls appeared in late November 

 and have been abundant all winter. 

 About March 20th they fairly swarmed 

 and at present (April 10) are still 

 common, but not in large flocks. 



Pine Siskins became abundant late 

 in December and are still very plen- 

 tiful. Crossbills were very scarce. 



Late in February there was a large 

 flight of Horned Larks and on the 

 27th I found several Lapland Long- 

 spurs with a large flock of Larks. This 

 is the first time I ever met the Long- 

 spur here. January 30th I saw a 

 Flicker. It must have spent the win- 

 ter although I never saw one here be- 

 fore in mid-winter. Also saw three 

 Robins on the 31st, the only ones not- 

 ed during the winter. There were a 

 few Snowflakes late in February dur- 

 ing some very stormy weather. 



March 3d an adult Cardinal was 

 seen. February 9th I saw a Holboell's 

 Grebe in winter plumage. A Snowy 

 Owl was seen January 12th and 1 

 shot an adult Goshawk January 2d, 

 but could not locate any breeding 

 birds this spring. There were quite a 

 few Cedarbirds about up to the middle 

 of January. 



The ice did not pass out of the river 

 until March 17th and very high water 

 resulted. Ducks were quite common 

 on the overflowed meadows and I se- 

 cured some fine males of Mallard, 

 American, Red-breasted and Hooded 

 Mergansers, Scaup, Bufflehead, Wood 

 Duck and Whistlers. Saw Swans on 

 several occasions; also Geese; but 

 these last two only seldom alight. 

 A number of Herring Gulls have been 

 about this winter and I have seen sev- 

 eral fine Rough-legged Hawks. 



R. B. Simpson. 

 Warren, Pa. 



