36 TH ED AUD OB ON SB UNS IS Esas 
osprey, and, in the rapids, killdeer, plover, yellow legs, and other water 
birds are seen every year. A few years ago the writer counted nine species 
of warblers feeding in a single large hawthorn. Overhead may be seen 
Bonaparte gulls, terns and herring gulls, at almost any time during the 
early days of May. 
Where the river turns southwest away from the dike is a wide low 
bank sheltered from the winds, where in March, robins, bluebirds, tufted 
titmice, and chickadees find shelter. South-east of Mud Lake is a large 
hawthorn orchard in which warblers may always be counted on, because of 
the aphis which always infests the hawthorns. The section of land between 
Mud Lake and the Des Plaines river has been under the control of the 
Drainage Board, and for a number of years in this woods there was a group 
of buildings which, it was reported, was a place of questionable character, 
and which was given a wide berth by bird lovers. It is now understood 
that this “no man’s land”’ has been transferred to the control of the Forest 
Preserve, and it is hoped that whatever was objectionable may be removed. 
The region surrounding Mud Lake is directly in the path of the old 
transfer portage used by the French pioneers and trappers almost 250 years 
ago, and recently just west of Harlem Avenue and south of the Santa Fe 
Railroad, a marker has been erected commemorating the geographical his- 
tory of the area. It would be quite fitting that in a section of the county 
which has so much of historical interest, a real Bird Sanctuary might be 
established as an additional monument. Not anywhere else in Cook County 
are conditions more ideal for both nesting and migrating bird life. 
The Portage Tract has within its confines a unique plant association 
due to the sandy soil. The dominant trees following the old shore line are 
the oaks—black, Hill’s, white bur, swampwhite, and red—according to 
elevation of the land. Southeast of Mud Lake are hackberry, elm, black 
walnut, white and black ash, silver maple, and a very unusual “orchard” 
of old hawthorns, mostly of the mollis-group. Bordering this orchard are 
thickets of wild crab and hundreds of the young hawthorns that through 
the browsing of cattle have grown into beehive forms and whose thorny 
bases make ideal nesting sites for thrashers, catbirds and sparrows. At the 
edges of Mud Lake are vigorous growths of cattails and pickerel weeds 
and in the deeper waters a few white water lilies and more of the yellow 
spatterdock flourish. 
West of Mud Lake and between it and the dike are willows, black ash, 
white ash, hackberry, silver maples, many hawthorns, some sugar maples, 
with a rank growth of herbaceous plant life, wild ginger, nettles, violets, 
phlox, ragweed, etc., in season. This entire region of possibly a half mile 
square is an ideal bird oasis or stopping place during migration. “Through 
here, no doubt, came the first cardinals, the Carolina wren and other birds 
that have widened their range. “The writer has seen more birds in this 
region and north and south of it than in any other like-sized area around 
