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JANUARY 22. Eighteen degrees below zero—one of the coldest 
days in my memory. Fruit buds are gone. A Bluebird banded last 
spring was found dead at Morrows, Louisiana. 
JANUARY 28 TO MARCH 7 includes my nature trip to the wilds of 
the Republic of Mexico. 
MArcH 7. Home again. Cardinals, Titmice, and Robins are sing- 
ing. A Harris Sparrow was taken at La Grange, Missouri, ten miles 
north of Quincy. It is irregular in occurrence. 
MARCH 8. First Migrant Shrike silhouetted against the sky as he 
sat watching for mice from the top of a post. Bluebirds are numerous. 
All of my two hundred boxes have interested birds—several have even 
started carrying dead grass. 
MARCH 9. The river is full of Mallards, Pintails, Scaups and 
Golden-eyes while above the Herring and Ring-billed Gulls are 
abundant. 
MARCH 18. Bronzed Grackles are back in great flocks. 
MARCH 14. Phoebes are investigating nesting sites under every 
bridge. Maple trees in full bloom. . 
MArcH 15. Fox Sparrows and Purple Finches are in full song. 
Great Blue Herons, Towhees, Kingfishers, and White-throats are new. 
Killdeer have been here a month and are now numerous. Last year’s 
sumach seeds are falling. Peziza coccinea shows its brilliant scarlet 
among the last year’s leaves. Red-tail Hawks are building. 
MARCH 19. The first hepaticas are blooming, showing purple, 
pink, and white flowers which color the dull rocky floor of the woods. 
MARCH 20. Robins are building while a Bluebird at Liberty has a 
completed nest and one egg. Shrikes have completed their nests in the 
osage hedge rows. 
MARCH 22. The Shoveller Ducks arrived today. They are tipping 
in the road side gutters. 
MARCH 238. Vesper Sparrows made their presence known with 
lovely little good-night songs while from the junipers the newly ar- 
rived “chippies” trilled their happiness. The stately old elms burst 
into blossom. , 
Marcu 24. I did not know Bewick’s Wren was here, but I heard 
it singing down the alley as it hunted through the garages and sheds 
for nesting sites. Over in the meadow I heard a trill which ascended 
rapidly—the Field Sparrows are back. 
MArcH 24. Late this afternoon the east was circled with a glori- 
ous rainbow. Below the snow trilliums are blooming while up above 
the sticky buds on the cottonwood are breaking. 
MArcH 25. Bluebirds are building in practically every box. 
MaArcH 26. A solitary Purple Martin scout circled the neighbor- 
hood Martin boxes, spent the night and disappeared. Woodcocks are 
probing among the lowland willow leaves. They will nest soon. 
MARCH 27. Cottonwood blossoms hang like great red pendants. 
In the muddy turf, the Jack Snipes are probing for angle worms. Blue- 
winged Teal have joined the Shovellers in the wayside ditches. Cow- 
birds augmented the flocks of Grackles today, while an increased num- 
