ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 21 



Notes from Port Byron 



Port Byron, 111., Nov. 15, 1920. 



Last spring when the Red-headed Woodpeckers arrived, they ruined 

 most of the Bluebird nests about our place. I had used a one and a half 

 inch auger to make the entrance holes of the nesting boxes, which was just 

 the right size for the Red-heads to get in and tear out the nests and eggs. 

 Last year they ruined a Chickadee's nest in an old peach tree in the garden, 

 when they enlarged the entrance and tore out the nest and young. Also 

 during the summer of 1919, several of the Red-heads formed the habit of 

 going into the chicken house and picking holes in the chicken eggs. They 

 were sometimes seen on the roof of the chicken house looking down through 

 some cracks, but they would never go in when anyone was watching them. 

 Once I surprised one inside, but he escaped through an opening on the 

 side. The holes which they picked in the eggs were not very large, and 

 when we opened some of them it could be seen that they stuck their bill 

 or tongue into the yolk, which was always mixed with the white. Some 

 days when the chickens were on the nests all day, the Red-heads did not 

 get a chance to puncture any eggs, and on other days there would 

 be from one to three with holes picked through the shell. This year they 

 did not bother us with such a bad habit. 



At nine o'clock, on the forenoon of June 12th this year, while working 

 in the garden, I was startled by a strange bird which commenced to sing in 

 a plum tree in the northwest corner of the garden. It did not sing very 

 long, when it commenced to imitate other birds, and I then recognized 

 it as a Mockingbird. It did not stay in the plum tree, but kept moving 

 from tree to tree along the west side of the garden, until it reached a rasp- 

 berry patch, when it suddenly quit singing, and then in about half a minute 

 afterwards a Brown Thrasher commenced to sing near the place where the 

 Mockingbird was last heard. Evidently the Brown Thrasher was follow- 

 ing the Mockingbird, and chased it away. During the time that the Mock- 

 ingbird was heard singing it imitated the Flicker, Bluejay, Cardinal, Purple 

 Martin, and Yellow-throated Vireo. On account of eye trouble, I could 

 not see the Mockingbird, but am sure it was one, as I heard them sing in 

 Florida several years ago. 



The breeding birds about our place were very successful this year in 

 raising their young, which I think was due to the dry weather we had 

 during the summer. Sixty-five pairs of Cliff Swallows built their nests 

 under the eaves of our barn. A good many years ago, before the English 

 Sparrows were here, there were about 200 nests on our barn each year, 

 but after the sparrows came, they became less and less every year, until 

 there were none. In 1913, when I got interested in the study of birds and 

 began to protect them, there were no Cliff Swallows at our barn. In 1914 

 one pair came and built a nest. I shot the English Sparrows that tried to 

 take the nest and the swallows raised two broods of young. In 1915 there 

 was again one nest. During the following vears the number of nests in- 

 creased as follows: 1916, 3; 1917, 12; 1918, 36; 1919, 55; 1920, 65. It is 

 hard work to keep the sparrows out of the nests, the only way is to shoot 

 and trap them. Most of the farmers do not pay any attention to the 

 sparrows and leave them to breed as they please. One good thing about 



