37° 



Bird - Lore 



downtown within a few blocks of the post 

 office — the former on September lo, and 

 the latter on October 13. 



One unexpected pleasure experienced 

 during the past two months was the re- 

 appearance of Cedar Waxwings within 

 the city limits. This species is even more 

 irregular in its wanderings in Colorado 

 than it was years ago in western New York. 

 It is now thirteen years since the writer 

 has seen a Cedar Waxwing in Denver or in 

 its immediate vicinity. These recent 

 visitors were first seen in Washington 

 Park by Mrs. L. K. Robinson, on Sep- 

 tember 29, when they were busy feeding on 

 berries (Mountain ash, etc.). These Wax- 

 wings have since been noticed in the same 

 park on several different days, and once 

 also in Cheesman Park. The Waxwings 

 had a rather difficult time getting the 

 berries as the greedy Robins kept them 

 on the move all the time. 



Further evidence of the plainsward 

 extension of Lewis's Woodpecker was 

 secured during this period by the occur- 

 rence of one on the Platte River nearly 

 twenty miles northeast of Denver. As 

 time goes on it will probably be found 

 farther and farther away from the moun- 

 tains along the Platte and similar wooded 

 streams. 



The Crossbill is as an erratic a wanderer 

 in Colorado as elsewhere. Nevertheless, 

 it has continued to be a surprise to en- 

 counter this species in Denver several 

 times since August 15 and to see five of 

 them in Cheesman Park on October 15. 

 The earliest previous date on which this 

 bird has been seen in Denver by the writer 

 is November 18, though it is not infrequent 

 at any time of the year in the neighboring 

 foothills wherever there are cone-bear- 

 ing trees, as, for example, on Lookout 



Mountain or in the neighborhood of 

 Sedalia. 



The last Bullock's Oriole was seen (in 

 this region) on August 18. This Oriole 

 commonly disappears from the Denver 

 region during the last week of August, but 

 it has been recorded by the writer as 

 staying in Denver as late as September 24. 

 Hence, one is justified in believing that 

 this species left this area quite a little 

 earlier than usual. 



The most common time for the Tree 

 Sparrow to reappear in this neighborhood 

 is during the first week in November. 

 This year several were discovered in 

 Washington Park on October 3, in com- 

 pany with Brewer's and Clay-colored 

 Sparrows, a decidedly representative as- 

 semblage of the genus Spizella. 



For a long time the writer has had the 

 belief that the various Longspurs, known 

 to have been not uncommon hereabouts 

 in the past, had left the country for good, 

 for it was only at long intervals that one 

 would be detected. It is a pleasure to 

 record that more Chestnut-collared Long- 

 spurs have been seen about Denver dur- 

 ing the past two months than during the 

 whole of the past two years put together. 

 Let it be hoped that this means that this 

 interesting bird is again increasing locally, 

 or is returning to its old haunts. 



It appears, on comparing records, that 

 the present period's bird incidents and 

 wanderings, as shown by many species 

 not mentioned above, show little or no 

 departure from the normal, except, per- 

 haps, that the Long-crested Jay arrived 

 from the mountains about a week ahead 

 of time, and that there was an unusually 

 large wave of Audubon's Warblers passing 

 through this region about September 28. — 

 W. H. Bergtold, Denver, Colo. 



