18 THE AUDUBON BULLE EIA 
Bird News from Lake Decatur 
T WAS a good start that Lake Decatur, Decatur, Illinois made, 
if looking toward a preserve for water birds, which included land birds 
as well, but it has never reached the point which was intended, 
due to the fact the city council soon after the lake was a lake allowed 
the upper reaches to be shot over in the hunting season. 
As a result of the action, the birds, notably gun shy and with good 
reason, have not stayed with the lake as they otherwise might have 
done. On a recent trip last fall I found a great blue heron, killed in 
some manner, its body too mutilated to determine just how, hung by 
its long neck to a post. It was a mute reminder that the people forget 
and lose their heads. 
Another thing which has worked to a disadvantage has been the 
heavy flood waters which crept up little rivulets and flooded places 
where nests would be. Yet another has been the lack of interest of the 
people, even the Bird and Tree club in this city, which once flourished, 
having been allowed to die out. 
That the water birds of the country do know and watch Lake Decatur 
is shown in migrating season during the spring and fall, and great num- 
bers of duck and some geese gather here for a stay. When they do they 
usually are visited by great crowds of people who have an interest in 
the pretty sight—when hunting is prohibited. 
I find gulls and terns about the lake at all seasonable times and 
have been told by some that a few ducks do stay here in the summer 
but it has not been my fortune to find them. 
The big blue, the little blue and green herons are usually here, and 
next in this section I judge from the fact that they are here all summer. 
I know the latter two do but I have not found nests of the first one. 
The lake is, however, a home of real joy for the smaller water birds 
which are not hunted and some of these occasionally wander into the 
city to the delight of everyone who loves them. The waders attract a lot 
of attention and it is almost a daily occurrence in the spring and summer 
for some one to call me over the telephone and tell me of some new 
thing he or she has seen. It may only be a sandpiper, common enough, 
but I encourage them because I think any interest of the kind leads to 
the benefit of the birds themselves. 
There are some night heron in this section but these are mostly in a 
big colony over near Tuscola where they are frequently visited by 
people interested in them. The man on whose farm they are has named 
his farm ““The Heronry”’ because of this fact. | 
I have noticed an increasing number of bitterns since the lake filled, 
but they tend more to be in the streams that lead into the lake rather 
than about the lake itself. 
