122 Union Bay 



fowl nesting grounds getting a great deal more serious? Is 

 the nesting experience on protected areas better than in the 

 wilder but less protected areas? Will some other species tend 

 to nest closer to civilization as do our mallard and the eider 

 ducks in Scandinavian countries? Is it possible that there 

 might be an increase in the number of nonmigrating water- 

 fowl such as are now represented by the partly domesticated 

 mallards and by the Canada geese of our local Woodland 

 Park which stay year after year even though they have not 

 been pinioned? Are geese and other waterfowl accumulating 

 a memory, knowledge, or instinct which enables them to 

 avoid the shooting areas and to stop at the protected spots? 

 These are but a few questions which local conditions bring 

 to my mind. 



The changes continue as the years pass. Some might be 

 foreseen if I were familiar with man's plans in the area- 

 plans for the lowering or raising of the water depth and for 

 the revisions of the marsh boundary. Some innovations will 

 be insignificant, as the appearance of a new and tiny blue 

 flower, or of an eastside turtle which could not be accounted 

 for until it was learned that it had been brought over by 

 students for laboratory examination and afterwards released. 



Occasionally, quite accurate prophecies can be made. 

 Right now, the arrival of a new and rather undesirable bird 

 can be predicted. It is the starling. Various observers have 

 marked its progress as it, like the pioneers of the early nine- 

 teenth century, steadily pushed out for the West. It was seen 

 in eastern Washington and only recently one of the most reli- 

 able of our local field men has recorded it in the little town 

 of Bellevue, less than ten miles distant. We will not welcome 

 it any more than we welcomed the bird's-foot trefoil, but like 

 the trefoil, it will be here to stay, and we must be witnesses 

 to the effect, good or bad, that it will have on the local bird 

 population. But mankind cannot complain for it was man, 



