carefully in the branches and wrapped his 
legs about the trunk. With a rope, he las- 
soed the broken end of a limb on the adjoin- 
ing tree, and, by slipping the cord back and 
forth, worked the rope up to the trunk. A 
slow, steady pull and the tops of the trees 
bent closer together. The tension became 
stronger and stronger between the two 
trees, until at four feet it looked like a huge 
catapult that might suddenly be sprung and 
shoot the climber backward into space. In 
another instant an aerial bridge was formed 
in the treetop while the photographer se- 
cured his prize. 
The California rookery was situated 
in sycamores, where nests were much 
more accessible. In a single tree, the two 
men counted forty-one blue heron nests 
and twenty-eight night heron nests. The 
photographs from this summer turned 
out well, but they were obtained at great 
personal suffering caused by thick 
In 1 904 the pair traveled to 
California, where they photographed 
golden eagles in the nest, right. 
While photographing herons, they 
were forced to sleep in a haystack, 
below, to escape hordes of mosquitoes. 
stands of poison oak and mobs of mos- 
quitoes. To escape the latter Finley and 
Bohlman slept in the dusty, prickly con- 
fines of a haystack. 
In the spring of 1905 Finley and Bohl- 
man traveled to Klamath Marsh in 
southeastern Oregon. Three years later, 
they visited Malheur Marsh, farther to 
the east at the base of steeply rising 
Steens Mountain. These were extended 
visits, each more than a month in length, 
and were not without hardships. The 
two men often slept on top of muskrat 
houses and were forced to deal with 
alkaline drinking water, hordes of in- 
sects, and sudden storms. At Klamath 
Lake, they landed on an island only to 
find it covered with fleas, and at Mal- 
heur they were lost for a full day and 
night in the towering tule reeds. 
These two trips were taken partly at 
the urging of William Dutcher, presi- 
dent of the fledgling National Associ- 
ation of Audubon Societies. Dutcher 
wanted Finley and Bohlman to secure 
information and photographs for a re- 
port regarding the killing of egrets, 
grebes, terns, and other birds for the 
millinery trade. At this time, the wide- 
spread destruction of native birds for 
their plumage was coming increasingly 
under attack, and in 1910 Atlantic 
