Teo ceeeAs Ll  e BlOUNe a baUou lo earn T 
coast, including the Purple Sandpiper. Immediately I answered, saying 
how much I envied her and that I wished a Purple Sandpiper would come 
to Wilmette. 
Now, not all such wishes come true so quickly, but the very next day 
after I’d received and so promptly answered Ellen Stephenson’s letter, I 
saw my Purple Sandpiper! 
I’ve always taken my dog, Star, with me on walks along the Wilmette 
lakefront so that she can get some exercise while I watch for birds, but 
she didn’t have much exercise at all on the morning of December 9th— 
because a small, bedraggled bird was standing on the pier I’d searched 
so many times! My Purple Sandpiper was close to shore; the sand beside 
the pier was covered with its footprints, showing that it had been there 
for quite a while. He was rather wet and did not appear to be very happy. 
The heavy fog that had hung low all the preceding night had perhaps 
forced the sandpiper to remain near shore. Now, at 9:30 a.m., the fog had 
halfway lifted. By the time Betty Mannette arrived (I’d dashed quickly 
in my car, along with a confused dog, to the Wilmette ‘L’ station to tele- 
phone Betty the good news), the sun was feebly shining. The Purple 
Sandpiper had become active, had dried considerably and looked much 
happier. After Betty left I continued to watch the sandpiper as he flitted 
down to the sand and up to the pier again. Finally he flew to the end of 
the pier, where I lost sight of him. 
Very early the next morning, this Purple Sandpiper was seen by Janet 
Zimmerman as she stopped at the harbor on her way to Chicago. A few 
hours after that I returned, hoping for another glimpse of this winter sand- 
piper, but only saw an empty pier. Oh well, perhaps this was for the best, 
since Star could have her exercise without any sandpiper interfering. And 
I happily wrote Ellen that a Purple Sandpiper had come at last to Wil- 
mette. 726 Eleventh Street, Wilmette, Illinois 
f a f 
Audubon Lectures for 1953-54 
THE ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY will again present a full program of five 
illustrated talks on natural history at the James Simpson theater of the 
Chicago Natural History Museum this season. However, only three of the 
lectures will be “Audubon Screen Tours.” The other talks will be presented 
by outstanding lecturers from the Middle West. As usual, printed announce- 
ments of the lectures will be mailed to all members this fall. Since dates for 
the “Screen Tours” have already been determined, we will give prelimi- 
nary announcement here. All talks will be Sunday matinees, beginning at 
2:30 p.m. 
November 1, 1953: Allan D. Cruickshank in “Santa Lucia Sea Cliffs.” 
January 17, 1954: Ernest P. Edwards in “Land of the Scarlet Macaw.” 
March 14, 1954: Tom and Arlene Hadley in “America, the Beautiful.” 
ft ft ft 
