146 Union Bay 



Once it started to fly away but some young barn swallows, 

 which had been engaged in flight practice, dipped close 

 enough to annoy or frighten it, so that it gave its protesting 

 note and returned and started feeding again. I divided my 

 time for the next half hour in watching another practice 

 flight which was going on just to the south of the lily pads. 

 A helicopter was making landings— it would descend noisily 

 to within forty feet of the surface and there it would poise 

 like a huge osprey and then drop lightly, down to the water. 

 Time after time I watched the maneuver and as I observed 

 the precision control I thought that such flying was within 

 the range of any person. But I did not then realize the skill 

 required. Only a few days later the same training plane met 

 with a failure of engine or pilot, and the occupant was killed 

 at the very spot I had been watching. 



At home in the ensuing weeks I began to read more about 

 the northern phalaropes with the result that my attitude 

 toward them changed considerably. I felt like a city reporter 

 who had casually talked to unassuming and pleasant strangers 

 at a reception only to find later that he had met an Amelia 

 Earhart, or a V. Stefansson. From then on the bird could 

 never be just another visitor to be judged by the impression 

 of the moment. It had now a fascinating and varied back- 

 ground which would repay constant and close inquiry. My 

 small-town visitor had become a cosmopolite. The bird I saw 

 in its plain grays and whites was not like the one which had 

 doffed its traveling dress and attired itself for the breeding 

 season. Then the female had worn gray-black plumage on 

 the head, white side patches on the neck, and a nape of red, 

 with its dark back streaked with brown, and with dark gray 

 daubs running down from the upper sides into the light 

 underparts. The male bird, contrary to the usual relationships 

 of bird sexes, had been much more plainly adorned, but its 

 spring plumage was brighter and neater and more attractive 

 than in fall and winter. 



