The AUDUBON BULLETIN 
1930 
Photographing in a Vanishing 
Marsh 
By JAMES C. PLAGGE and WILLIAM. .O. DAWSON 
ways stands the bird photographers’ temporary business office.’ 
Automobiles are constantly surging by but the birds disregard the 
disturbance. We arrive at the marsh and seat ourselves on wooden 
boxes under the canopy of our blind. Our feet and legs are in the water 
and we are prepared for a full day’s work. 
“Kildee, kildee, kildee,” is the familiar sound we hear and with the 
alarm notes of the killdeer the other birds quickly withdraw to some 
distance. We reproach the killdeer. We would have him ostracized. 
We look through small holes in the side of the blind and in a few minutes 
succeed in identifying about a dozen species and innumerable individu- 
als. The nearest bird now is three times the distance at which it would 
be possible to take his picture and we blame the killdeer. The birds are 
now aware of our presence and we must win their confidence by a long 
and patient wait. 
Lunch time arrives and we eat the little food we have brought with 
us without stirring out. The sun is shining brightly and it is.hot in these 
close quarters and the gassy odor from this black swamp is none too 
pleasant. But this is all in the day’s work. We have taken a thermos 
bottle of clear, cold water and we drink from it rather frequently. 
Probably with “‘water everywhere but not a drop to drink” a thirst is 
readily created. 
As we sit silently here in the early hours of the afternoon just waiting 
for something to happen, waiting for one of those herons, rails or 
yellowlegs to come within focusing range, a pectoral sandpiper surprises 
us by dropping only a few feet from our hiding place. The man at the 
camera gets the bird under focus. He does not trip the lever, however, 
because the piper is nervously weaving his way nearer. When the bird 
is nearly at the minimum focusing range of the camera it turns quickly 
and runs away! It is too late now to take the picture and the curtain 
has fallen on one of the many disappointments of a bird photographer. 
3 
|: A small marsh adjacent to one of northern Illinois’ busiest high- 
