April 27, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
535 
S 
lol 
[MDI¥ 
A Day Afield. 
Branchport, N. Y., April 7.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: The morning of March 31 was fair 
and warm with song sparrows singing from 
every bush, the crows cawing and a large flock 
of black ducks resting in the channel. This is 
the only open water at the head of beautiful 
Keuka, as the lake still lay covered with over 
twenty-four inches of solid ice and our trout 
fishermen are a gloomy crowd, as the season 
opens shortly and they have had no weather 
fit to paint their boats. 
The recent rains and warm weather have 
cleared the inlet from ice, and a walk along its 
banks through the fields and bush showed us 
many interesting things. At the very beginning 
through the brush. Tree sparrows were sing¬ 
ing in the hedgerows and a marsh hawk cours¬ 
ing the meadows. 
Further up the creek we put up a pair of 
black ducks, then a pair of mallards and soon 
three more blacks and startled a rabbit from 
the bushes, and it went bounding away in the 
open faster and faster each jump until it disap¬ 
peared in a hedgerow. 
As we came back to the marsh and fringe of 
trees and bushes at the head of the lake we ran 
across a flock of goldfinches twittering merrily, 
and a hermit thrush threw us an inquiring look 
over his shoulder as he sat on a low branch, 
where we could see his olive back and rufous 
tail. Our earliest record for hermit heretofore 
was April 6. 
with their going. I have known the scarlet 
tanager to die of starvation in the early spring 
in Northern Michigan, and the bluebirds often 
freeze to death in New England when they ap¬ 
pear too soon. 
It happened that the lower end of the mast 
which supported our martin house had decayed 
to such an extent that one day a tempestuous 
wind blew it down, and made a pretty general 
average of the whole outfit. Fortunately, the 
birds had left, but in order to be prepared for 
their return, I got some store boxes and built 
them a new house. I have often wondered that 
people who admire the birds should not go to 
the trouble of putting up something which 
might serve them for a home, and where they 
might be seen at any time. It costs but little 
to do this, and the birds seem to appreciate the 
attention, but the thing may easily be overdone. 
When the house was erected, my helper told 
me that he once knew a wealthy man who built 
a very elaborate and expensive three-story 
house for the birds, and they came and looked 
ALONG THE INLET. 
of our walk we flushed seventeen pheasants all 
in a bunch and only one cock bird among them. 
The hunters about cleaned them out last 
October, but we probably have enough left for 
seed. 
Three kildeers followed by a Wilson’s snipe 
got up from a wet place in the field, and as we 
came to the creek, three hooded mergansers 
arose and flew off toward the lake, a meadow¬ 
lark went over, and the first phoebe of the sea¬ 
son sat on a low branch of a poplar, jerking 
its tail. 
It was a good day for migrants, as we soon 
saw our first kingfisher, two of them flying down 
the creek, sounding their rattles as they went, 
and a great blue heron arose from a marshy 
pasture and slowly flapped his way over the 
woods up stream. By the way, I should call 
the great blue heron mentioned by Mr. 
Lawrence in the March 30 Forest and Stream 
an early migrant instead of a winter resident. 
They sometimes arrive here as early as March 
17. and should arrive on Long Island much 
earlier than they do with us. 
As we approached a bunch of tag alders we 
heard a pheasant crow and glanced up just in 
time to see the flap of his wings after the finish, 
and as we moved, he saw us and sneaked off 
From photographs by Verdi Burtch. 
At the mouth of the creek was a flock of 
twenty-three American goldeneyes and a large 
flock of black ducks, and up around the bend 
a handsome hooded merganser drake was lead¬ 
ing two ducks up and down the creek. From 
our point of concealment in the cattails we 
could see the crest rise and fall as he strutted 
along. Verdi Burtch. 
Attracting the Birds. 
Tarpon Springs. Fla., April 4. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: A woman whose summer home is 
in St. Albans, Vermont, and who is known 
among her friends as the “Bird Woman.” told 
me the other day that she had just seen a 
Baltimore oriole in this vicinity. 
I have never seen one here, and this must 
have been a migrant. In the winter, robins are 
sometimes seen here in flocks, when, if they can 
find a camphor tree, they eat the berries greed¬ 
ily—not, as one would think, a very desirable 
food. I have known them in the mountains of 
Eastern Tennessee to devour the berries of the 
holly, and it is said that they at times will eat 
the cedar buds in some parts of Pennsylvania. 
When it ii time to migrate, the birds seem 
to allow no question of sustenance to interfere 
HOODED MERG.ANSERS. 
it over, but “not the denied one of ’em would 
ever live in it at all.” 
I was at some inconvenience to paint the 
bird house and have it ready for occupation on 
the first of February, as I thought that it 
would be wanted about that time. Accordingly, 
on the morning of the second, my wife heard 
the familiar note of a martin, and on looking at 
their house, we saw three of them. 
They always have a good deal of talking and 
planning before they are quite ready for busi¬ 
ness, but about the middle of March they had 
mated, and were beginning to accumulate 
house-keeping material. They seem to be do¬ 
ing quite well. Kelpie. 
Eagles Ridding Island of Varmints. 
San Francisco, Cal., April 15 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: From Santa Rosa Island, which 
has been transformed into a great stock range, 
comes the news that American eagles are. rapidly 
exterminating wild animals on the Channel Isl¬ 
ands, and that foxes and wild boars are becom¬ 
ing scarce. While sheep are occasionally killed, 
the presence of the eagles is welcomed. The 
eagles pick out the young for destruction. 
Golden Gate. 
