Birds and Seasons 25 



BIRDS OF THE SEASON 



Permanent residents and winter visitants (see Bird-Lore, Dec, 1900, p. 185.) 

 February Migrants. — Purple Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, Bluebird, Robin, 

 Flicker. 



March Aligrants .—March 1-20, Canada Goose, Woodcock, Snipe, Phoebe, Meadow- 

 lark, Cowbird, Fox Sparrow; 20-31, Kingfisher, Mourning Dove, Yellow-bellied Sap- 

 sucker,* Field Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow,* Martin,* Tree Swallow. 



FEBRUARY AND MARCH BIRD-LIFE AT OBERLIN. OHIO 



Bv Lynds Jones 



The weather of Februar}^ is only less variable than March. We have 

 learned to expect our most severe weather during the first ten days of 

 the month, when the temperature frequently drops considerably below 

 zero. Snow is an almost invariable accompaniment of this week or more 

 of cold, but its depth is very rarely as much as a foot. During this time 

 the resident Hawks may be entirely absent, but they return with a 

 change to warmer and are not again driven away. It is then that we 

 expect to find the Snowflake and Rough-legged Hawk. So seldom that 

 it is hardly fair to count, the rarer birds of prey and the Pine Grosbeak 

 and White -winged Crossbill may be driven into the country. Either a 

 little after the middle or during the closing week of the month the 

 weather becomes so much like spring that the snow almost disappears 

 and the first migrants arrive. These first ones are almost always rein- 

 forcements to the small company of permanent resident species, as the 

 Song Sparrows, Flickers and Hawks. At this first touch of spring the 

 Prairie Horned Larks and the two small Woodpeckers and White - 

 breasted Nuthatch begin to mate. 



March is a winter-summer sandwich, bringing the first waves of the 

 great migration. It is not until March that Crows and Meadowlarks 

 can be depended upon for the daily horizon. The last week in March 

 is not seldom a red-letter week for the bird lover, for then the birds 

 come up from the south in a great host, bringing many which should 

 linger for at least ten days longer. I have recorded the White -throated 

 Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, Purple 

 Martin, Barn Swallow and Brown Thrasher during this week. To be 

 sure, one must look in the most sheltered places for these less hardy 

 birds, but there they are, on the sunny hillside or in the sheltered nook 

 in the woods. They are but forerunners of their host and hardly count 

 in the final summing up, except as such. Yet a meeting with a bird out 

 of season is the electric shock which spurs the field student on to 

 greater effort. 



