24 Union Bay 



Among these birds were migrants which would pass over or 

 stop at the marsh for food and shelter. 



From the standpoint of marsh population there had been 

 no increase in March. The gain caused by the arrival of a 

 few swallows and tule wrens, and of a few redwings which 

 displayed their red spots on their black plumage, had been 

 offset by the loss in water bird population. The bay was bare 

 of most of the ducks which had covered it during the winter. 

 Only a few mallards, the green-heads of the hunters, and an 

 occasional scaup, merganser, or bufflehead fed and flew about 

 the area. 



Nevertheless, a marsh room clerk, had there been one, 

 could have scanned his registration list with some satisfac- 

 tion. For though the occupancy was almost the lowest of 

 the year, yet an active season was close at hand. I needed no 

 room clerk to tell me what I would see in April. I had records 

 of each of my trips to the marsh over a long period and in 

 addition had made a separate card for each species, entering 

 on it the various dates that I had seen it and when it had be- 

 gun and stopped singing. Many birds came, and in close 

 conformity to their previous schedule. I usually heard the 

 song of the yellow warbler first and saw it inspecting the 

 branches of a bare willow. Then another warbler, the yellow- 

 throat, with a black band through its eyes, sang from the 

 edge of the bank and flew back and forth over the cattails 

 where I would find it throughout the summer. Redwings con- 

 tinued to appear and began their musical o-ku-l'ee almost as 

 soon as they arrived. The marsh was now filled with tule 

 wrens whose enthusiastic desire for singing pervaded the 

 whole area. Strange and rarely seen birds came occasionally 

 —birds that were not previously listed on my records, birds 

 which I had not seen before in the area, and which I would 

 not see again for a long time. The canoehouse manager con- 

 tinually called my attention to new arrivals. They would stay 

 for a few hours, nearly all of them, and then they would be 



