38 



THE OOLOGIST 



An April Blow on Lake Erie. 



In late April, 1902, I spent a few 

 clays on the Peninsula near Erie, 

 Pennsylvania. I had a friend who was 

 located in a house-boat along the 

 shore of the "Peninsula" in Misery 

 Bay. 



While there I made his place head- 

 quarters, so as to be right on the spot 

 all the time. 



The "Peninsula" is Government 

 property, is kept in a wild and natur- 

 al state and is a great place for birds, 

 especially waterbirds, which some- 

 times come in in considerable num- 

 bers and variety during severe storms. 

 At such times large bags of ducks or 

 shore-birds are often made. 



I just got there nicely when a blow 

 set in which was just what I wanted. 

 The blow began with a stiff south-east 

 wind at night and at daylight I was in 

 the blind on the "Point" where my 

 friend had about sixty decoys out. Lots 

 of gulls and ducks were already seek- 

 ing shelter in the Bay. The ducks 

 seemed to be all Red-breasted Mer- 

 gansers, so after sitting in the blind 

 for an hour and shooting several nice 

 drakes I had breakfast and then start- 

 ed across the "Peninsula" for the out- 

 side beach on the open lake. Seeing 

 three big birds coming my way I laid 

 low and as they passed I gathered in 

 a bid gray Loon. 



Around the Government boat house 

 I saw a large gathering of ducks. 

 Crawling up carefully I found they 

 were mostly Lesser Scaup and Red- 

 breasted Mergansers. There were sev- 

 eral nice male Pintails among them, 

 but they kept off too far, so I took in 

 three drake Scaup and started on. 



At a little pond I sneaked onto a 

 bunch of ducks and bagged three 

 drake BJue^wing Teal and a drake 

 Scaup. The Teal were in perfect 

 dress. 



While recovering my game two 



Greater Yellow-legs flew over and I 

 got one with each barrel. The first 

 thing on the outside was a flock of 

 twenty ducks which turned out to be 

 Long-tails. 1 shot at long range and 

 got a nice adult pair. 



The next thing of interest was a 

 pair of rather large light colored birds 

 standing in the edge of the surf. Get- 

 ting closer I saw them tip occasion- 

 ally so knew they must be waders of 

 some kind. There was absolutely no 

 cover so I walked along as if to pass 

 them at long range. When still a 

 long shot off they got very nervous, 

 so I fired and killed one. The other 

 arose, but before I could get in the 

 second shot it also fell dead. I found 

 them to be a pair of Willets in finest 

 spring plumage, and as they are the 

 only spring record for western Penn- 

 sylvania that I know of, I felt repaid 

 for my trip by their capture alone. 

 There is a bird in fall plumage in the 

 Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg, which is 

 the only other record for western 

 Pennsylvania that I know of. 



The wind was shifting and getting 

 stronger and it began to rain, so I 

 started for the house boat where I ar- 

 rived without further adventure. 



By night the wind was very strong 

 in the northwest and was soon blow- 

 ing a gale that was lashing old Lake 

 Erie into a fury. The house boat, 

 though firmly anchored, tossed and 

 strained at its cables every little 

 while bringing up with a jerk that 

 sent everything to the floor. It was 

 a hard matter to sleep with the noise 

 of the storm and pelting of sticks, 

 sand and limbs on the boat. 



At daylight it was indeed wild out. 

 A sixty-mile gale was blowing and it 

 was impossible to stand up, to say 

 nothing of trying to walk. At times 

 the roar of the surf pounding the out- 

 side beach could be heard above the 

 storm. 



