ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 



Mid-Winter Notes 1919-1920 



Below appear the annual mid-winter notes from correspondents of the 

 Bulletin. Some of these were brought up to February 1. others three weeks 

 later. With one exception the observations have to do only with Illinois 



areas. That exception is the report from Sioux City. Iowa, which Professor 

 Stephens kindly furnished at the request of the Editor. It was desired to 

 check up the extent, east and west, of the "invasion of Bohemian Wax- 

 wings." This invasion seems to be the only event of unusual interest to 

 mark the somewhat severe and sustained winter period. In the notes there 

 is the usual sharp contrast between the bird census of a southern Illinois 

 area represented by Olney and a nothern area like that covered by the Rock- 

 ford Bird Club. Mr. Stoddard of the Field Museum of Natural History is 

 able to furnish the most complete report upon the flight of Wax wings. Mr. 

 Nordenholt of Oak Park had the most thrilling visit with ducks off the 

 shore line of Lake Michigan. His report of seeing a few specimens of the 

 Harlequin Duck aroused the close attention of ornithologists and other ob- 

 servers such as Ruthven Deane, Professor Eifrig, Larry St. John and others, 

 and there has been some questioning and much exchange of notes because of 

 the lack hitherto of authenticated records for the Llarlequin in the Chicago 

 area. Mr. Nordenholt stands pat, however, and seems to have made a 

 "new" report for the area. The stray robin made himself conspicuous at 

 Waukegan, Lake Forest and other northern points about February 1 and 

 the metropolitan papers presented the usual report of the "first robin." It 

 seems that flickers and meadow larks represented by solitary specimens are 

 each winter not uncommon even as far north as the latitude of Chicago. 

 The northward flight of bluebirds was evident at Quincy as late as Febru- 

 ary 20. They had not been reported in northern Illinois as the last copy 

 went to the printer. March 1. 



Belvidere 



This is a feeding-shelf report and relates first of all to our chickadee 

 guests. 



We have not seen more than three at once, but they are so gay and 

 spirited that they make our sumach bushes seem full of joyous fluffs of 

 down. Their swinging food shelf is not a yard from the window beside 

 my desk, and there is really only one so tame that he pretends 1 am not 

 there when he finds me just inside the window. One flies off in a panic, 

 shrieking, if he alights on the shelf before he sees me, and will not venture 

 back while I am at the desk, but the- third one will come, only he never 

 (eases making most uncomplimentary remarks, occasionally flying to the 

 porch roof where he will do justice to his feeling of injury by jerking out 

 a rapid succession of "dee-dee-dees" delivered in a very rasping voice! Of 

 course we love the' chickadees most, and never tire of watching them make 

 their dainty meals of crushed peanuts, but a solitary red-breasted nuthatch 

 certainly affords us most amusement. We call him "The Clown." for he 

 takes the greatest delight in terrifying the chickadees by casting himself, 

 apparently in the most abandoned and careless acrobatic manner, from all 

 manner of angles, upon the food-shelf, seizing a bit of nut and diving off 



