Pe oe el ere OeNe Bb iUr iy le bsTs1] N 11 
Field Notes — September 1965 
By Elton Fawks 
We have been receiving more and more records, some with good support- 
ing data and some very scanty. Any rare bird should be reported in detail. 
Space in the BULLETIN will not allow printing of all data, but incomplete 
material will be kept on file. An example of good reporting is printed 
below as a model. Keep sending in your records, written in any fashion, 
but support them with essential field data if possible. 
By Lawrence G. Balch 
On May 30, 1965, Mr. Howard Blume of Chicago, Mr. Roland Tidrick, 
Assistant Curator of the Lincoln Park Zoo, and I were doing field work 
in the meadow east of Powder Horn Marsh, which is located in Chicago 
near Wolf Lake. At about 6:30 a.m. we saw a large black bird alight in the 
marsh, some distance away. Observing it through binouclars, we imme- 
diately noticed that the bird was an ibis, and we assumed it to be a Glossy 
Ibis. We walked around the marsh to get a better look, and then attempted 
to wade toward the bird in order to photograph it at close range, but deep 
water prevented this. 
The bird spent the morning feeding, and we observed it intermittently. 
Later in the morning, the bird began feeding at closer range, and we took 
16 mm. movies through a 6” lens. We could clearly see, through a 25-power 
telescope, a band of white extending from the upper mandible, around the 
eye, to the lower mandible. This marked the bird as a White-faced Ibis, 
not the Glossy Ibis. We continued observation throughout the morning, and 
when we left at 1:30 p.m., the bird was resting on an isolated clump of 
vegetation in the center of the marsh. 
Volume I of the Handbook of North American Birds lists the White- 
faced Ibis as a subspecies, Plegadis falcinellus chihi, of the Glossy Ibis, but 
the 1957 A.O.U. Checklist considers it a distinct species, P. chihi. I have 
consulted various sources, but can find no record of previous sighting of 
this species in Illinois. There are records of its occurrence in Michigan, Ohio, 
and western New York, however. The principal breeding grounds of this 
species are in California, Utah, and Nevada, where it is essentially non- 
migratory. 
ft FI i ft 
White-faced Ibis — a second sighting, May 30, at Powder Horn Forest 
Preserve, Cook County, by Lawrence Balch, Howard Blume and Roland 
Tidrick. 
Common Loon — March 15, seen by Clyde Mitchell at Crab Orchard Lake. 
White Pelican — August 15 and 23 — Calumet, Cook County, by Charles 
Clark (C.O.S. field trip). 
Cattle Egret — May 13, one found at Barstow by Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Frink; 
four seen May 31 below Muscatine, Iowa, across the river from Illinois, 
by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Dau. 
European Widgeon — seen in May (date?) in Jackson Park, Chicago, by 
Mrs. Amy Baldwin. 
