ferret UD UB O NB ULE Esl eN 23 
like entering a new world. Here was a land filled with the resounding calls 
of many birds. As I paddled my canoe across the lake, a pair of Loons 
came swinging overhead, then a pair of Mallards, and, on arriving on the 
opposite shore, I soon found the nests of six Robins and a Grackle’s nest 
high on the water tower. This was the site of the North Shore Area Boy 
Scout Camp; my summer was to be spent as nature director so I could look 
forward to the next two months. 
‘The following day found me rambling along the lake and through the 
spruce in search of whatever I could find. I watched a pair of Osprey 
fishing; then they would fly to their nest in the maple grove, feed the young 
and return for another fish. Soon I found three Red-winged Blackbird 
nests and banded the young. As I was cruising along I spotted a muskrat 
swimming in the cat-tails; I disturbed its easy and playful swim and it 
crashed into a heavy growth where a Coot put up an alarmed series of calls. 
Its nest was located and also one of a Bittern. 
The lake has one small bay covered with wild rice and pond lilies. As 
I rounded the point to enter this nook, I was pleased when I saw a loon in 
the thickly fringed shore grass; it immediately left and my investigation 
proved fruitful for I found one egg. 
In the late afternoon I walked along the shore and saw a large pine 
snake crossing my path and a short distance away I discovered the nest and 
four eggs of a Brown Thrasher. The eggs hatched on June 29 and the 
young left the nest on July 11. 
During the last week of June, I found a Least Flycatcher’s nest high in 
the birch with three eggs in it, twelve Robins’ nests with from three eggs to 
four feathered young. The Ist of July I roamed about the heavy timber 
back of the camp and found the nest of a Northern Pileated Woodpecker 
high in a maple. I could not get the count of eggs, but later in the season 
heard young in the cavity. 
A Ruffed Grouse and six eggs were located July 23. “This bird had 
its nest under a fallen spruce; when I came upon the nest, the female flew 
up to a limb on this dead tree and with beating wings, scolded fiercely. 
Watching this bird stamp her feet and thump her wings was a most 
unusual experience for meas I had always pictured them as wary. I walked 
to within six feet of this grouse. On July 7 I flushed a family of grouse, 
nine young and the female. 
Slate-colored Juncos were common on the sanded hillsides near an 
open pasture about one-quarter of a mile from the camp. I did not find 
a nest but on July 13 I saw an albino. 
On July 14, a Towhee’s nest was found containing three ‘Towhee eggs 
and seven Cowbird eggs. On the 16th, six of the eggs hatched three Tow- 
hees and three Cowbirds; the remaining were pushed from the nest by the 
bird; on breaking them I found the embryos seemingly in good condition. 
Mrs. Towhee must have thought her family was large enough. 
Numerous Song Sparrow nests were found in the sphagnum bog, and 
