33 THE AUDUBON" BULLETIN 



Notes From The Field, Revised to March 15, 1921 



Chicago Area : Prof. C. W. G. Eifrig of River Forest furnishes the 

 following report upon the past season in the Chicago area. 



"Ornithologically speaking the two, outstanding features of the past 

 season in the Chicago Area are the unusual mildness of the winter, and 

 the presence of the Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker. You may say the form- 

 er, the mildness, is something meteorological and not ornithological, but 

 yet it is true, since meteorology, the weather, plays an intimate part in the 

 lives of birds, although not always in the manner popularly supposed. 

 The last fall and the present winter, at this writing hurrying to its end, 

 are certainly notable for the high temperature, the great proportion of sun- 

 shine, the paucity of storms, and the small amount of rain and snow. Lest 

 anyone say that this is only a little meterological enthusiasm otherwise called 

 imagination, as so many of our weather remembrances really are, let m • 

 quote from the official summaries of our Chicago weather bureau — it de- 

 serves to be here placed on record. To go back as far as October. "The 

 mean temperature for the month, 61.9° was the highest October mean 

 recorded since the station was established in 1871. Mild weather was 

 continuous from the 3rd to the 27th. Precipitation was about three-fifths 

 of the normal. Sunshine was above the normal. Of 19 clear days, 13 

 occurred in succession. As a whole, November was mild with only light 

 precipitation. The mean temperature, 40.2°, was 1° above normal. In 

 December moderate temperature prevailed throughout the first half of the 

 month, etc. The maximum was 62° on the 3rd., the minimum — 4° on the 

 28th. No severe storms occurred, with the exception of a period extend- 

 ing from the 13th to the 15th. January, as a whole, was mild and dry, with 

 no severe storms. Aside from one moderately cold period, 12th to 17th 

 inclusive, every day was about the seasonal average in temperature, the excess 

 ranging from 15° — 26° in 9 days. The total precipitation, amounting to 

 0.97 inch, was less than one-half, and the total snowfall, 3.2 inches, less 

 than one-third of the normal. There was an unusually large amount of 

 sunshine, 100% of the possible amount being recorded in 7 days. In 

 February mild, dry weather prevailed during most of the month. The 

 mean temperature, 33.4°, was 8° above normal, and this was the sixth suc- 

 cessive month with a mean temperature abnormally high. The absolute 

 maximum of 66° on the 15th exceeds all previous February records. The 

 month ranks as the third driest February in 5 1 years, and the total snowfall, 

 0.3 inch is the least. However, the small snowfall for the entire winter to 

 Feb. 28th, 9.4 inches, likewise breaks all previous records." All this is 

 quoted with many omissions. 



The second feature named above, the presence of the Arctic Three-toed 

 Woodpecker, is also remarkable. Ordinarily he stays summer and winter 

 in his northern home, rarely going as far south as this, because his food, 

 the larvae of wood-boring beetles, is found in winter as well as summer. 

 But this past season these woodpeckers have appeared in some numbers 

 here. Last year we had the Bohemian Waxwing, another rare northern 

 excentric visitor, the years before the equally erratic Evening Grosbeak, 

 and now the Three-toed fellow, thus putting some excitement into the 



