i 
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WISCONSIN, 
ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN AUDUBON SOCIETIES^ 
One Year 25 Cents FALL MIGRATION NUMBER Single Copy 5 Cents 
Published by the Wisconsin Audubon Society at Madison, Wisconsin 
Entered as second class matter August 23, 1909, at Madison, Wis., under the act of Congress of March 3, 1879 
YOL. XIV SEPTEMBER, 1912 NO. 1 
FALL MIGRATION 
The school year has come once more 
and we are returning to the pursuits 
; which occupy us for nine months out 
of the twelve. On the whole, the fall 
is a pleasant season, and after the heat 
of summer we look forward to it with 
keen anticipation. Is it not the time 
when we again meet our schoolmates? 
Is it not the time when the goldenrod 
and asters, the gentians, and the beau¬ 
tiful though obnoxious thistles are in 
the height of their bloom? And then, 
too, is it not the time when the ap¬ 
proaching winter turns the leaves to 
those gorgeous colors which grace the 
trees of Wisconsin in autumn ? 
These are some of the fascinating 
sights which every Wisconsin boy and 
1 girl sees and knows. But there are 
I many more equally interesting which 
| it takes sharp eyes and an observant 
mind to see and it is of some of these 
in the bird world that I am going to 
write. You all have doubtless heard 
about the spring and fall migrations, 
and also you may from your own ob- 
i servation have learned something 
| about the spring migration, but I 
j doubt if you have learned quite as much 
1 about the fall movement. One does 
not have to seek very far for the rea¬ 
son ; it is simply the fact, that it is 
more difficult to make observations 
and to secure accurate records in fall. 
Not the 1 east among these difficulties 
i 
is the obstruction of vision due to the 
dense foliage of the trees and bushes, 
the same obstacle which usually puts 
an end to our bird classes in spring. 
And another, in southern Wisconsin at 
least, is the difficulty of determining 
precisely the departure of a species. 
It is a comparatively easy matter to 
perceive the arrival of a bird which as 
a species does not breed in a particu¬ 
lar locality, but it is quite another 
thing to note the departure of a breed¬ 
ing species. It is usually not until one 
suddenly realizes the fact that one 
has not recorded the occurrence of any 
individuals for several days or more 
that one begins to think that possibly 
that species has departed for the 
south. And this realization often 
raises that perplexing doubt in the ob¬ 
server’s mind, “Has this species really 
migrated, or have I merely overlooked 
it thus long?” 
But perhaps we can get a better 
idea of the fall migration if we take 
up the events in their sequence. In 
the late spring and early summer, the 
birds have been nesting and rearing 
their young. Then, at some rime be¬ 
tween the close of the breeding activ¬ 
ities and the beginning of the fall mi¬ 
gration, all birds undergo a moult. 
That is to say, the old feathers are lost 
and new ones take their place. And 
here the bird student’s trouble begins, 
