Birds & Nature Magazine 



IX 



Field Notes 



CONDUCTED BY JESSE L. SMITH 



THE Editor of "Birds & Nature Magazine" 

 has set aside this space for those of its readers 

 who keep note books and make field records. It 

 seems to the writer that an important service could 

 be performed here in the exchange of notes relating 

 to migration movements and geographic range and, 

 in general, the contribution of exact data of value 

 in bird biographies. It is hoped that there will be 

 a ready response from the various sections of the 

 country which "Birds & Nature Magazine" regu- 

 larly visits, and that the reports of its correspondents 

 may make this department one of the most interest- 

 ing features of the magazine. 



This number of the magazine will arrive at many 

 points in a broad belt curving across from Massa- 

 chusetts to northern Iowa, just at the time when 

 the high tide of bird migration is beginning to be 

 felt. To all bird lovers thus situated "Birds & 

 Nature Magazine wishes "good hunting" with 

 opera glass and note book. The best hunting 

 period is usually in the time of apple blossoms and 

 is practically over when the petals begin to shower 

 out of the tree tops. So while the gala days of 

 migration last, there must be vigils early and late 

 in orchard and city park and on the border of the 

 forest tangle. 



Some of us are only closing up the records of the 

 winter visitants. In the Chicago region the pine 

 grosbeak was reported as late as April 17, and on 

 May 1, as this issue was nearly ready for the press, 

 stray flocks of evening grosbeaks were yet haunting 

 the box-elders at Highland Park, Illinois, where 

 these notes are being written. The call of the 

 northland had not yet thrilled this handsome visitor 

 from Manitoba and the far north, although migrants 

 from the south were steadily streaming in that 

 direction. The rich song of the fox sparrow had 

 given way to the pensive call of the white throat. 

 The myrtle and magnolia warblers had been flitting 

 about for two weeks, and the earliest palm and 

 black and white warblers were appearing in the 

 same range. To the writer the lingering of the 

 evening grosbeak so far to the souththern limit of 

 its winter range seems noteworthy. Readers are 

 invited to contribute to this department any records 

 of the movements of this northern bird they may 

 have made during the past winter. 



The great Interest of this month is, of course in 

 the movement of the warblers. Usually the myrtle 

 warbler is first to appear north of its winter range, 

 being several days in advance of other warblers. 

 One may expect it about the time the first ruby- 

 crowned kinglets arrive to take the place of the 

 golden-crowns. Then follow the palm warblers, 

 the black and white warblers, and the black- 

 throated blue warblers, and almost before one is 

 aware the trees are fairly alive with darting, flutter- 

 ing insect hunters of beautifully variegated plum- 

 age. The habit of warblers of moving in mixed 

 flocks has its disadvantage for the amateur observer, 

 who, in shifting his glass from one individual to 

 another in the same tree to verify a partial observa- 

 tion, rnay find his attention hopelessly distracted by 

 an entirely different species. Characteristic of this 

 was the writer's observation last year when glanc- 



ing out of the office window he saw a blackburnian, 

 a bay-breasted and a chestnut-sided warbler in the 

 same tree at the same time. One observer in 

 northern Minnesota, during a single forenoon, 

 counted 23 species of warblers from one spot in the 

 woods. 



The northward movement of warblers seems to 

 be more leisurely than is generally supposed. As 

 an illustration, the black and white warblers, ac- 

 cording to W. W. Cooke, begin to strike at the 

 light houses in southern Florida early in March, 

 but it is the middle of May before this species has 

 reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This same 

 species passes New Orleans about March 27, spends 

 more than a month on the way to the Chicago 

 region, and arrives at Lake Superior about May 3. 

 The latest comers among the warblers, such as the 

 Canadian warbler, seem to travel faster than their 

 predecessors. The average northward movement 

 among the earlier warblers would seem to be about 

 fifteen miles a day; among the later warblers per- 

 haps twice that distance. 



One starting out to learn to identify the warblers 

 should confine attention to a few, and begin with 

 those that have a wide nesting range, such as 

 the red-start and the yellow warbler. These one 

 can live with, as it were, and not only learn their 

 distinctive markings, but come to know familiarly 

 theii songs and peculiar habits. The songs of 

 many of the warblers are worth studying as aids to 

 identification. Anyone who has learned the quaint, 

 husky song of the black-throated blue warbler, for 

 example, will have no trouble in finding this bird. 

 It is suggested that before the beginner goes 

 "a-warbling" he study carefully from pictures and 

 text the characteristics of the more conspicuous 

 warblers that may visit his locality. A list of ten 

 for the middle range of the warblers might include 

 the myrtle, palm, black and white, magnolia, 

 black-throated blue, bay-breasted, redstart, oven- 

 bird, yellow, and Maryland yellow-throat. 



Note: Records and observations appropriate for this Depart- 

 ment should be addressed to ''Field Notes, care of Birds & Nature 

 Magazine, Chicago," and should reach us not later than the tenth 

 of the month. 



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