eh hee Asal BOON | BoUsloGL oT TIN aia 
April at the Touhy Clay Pits 
By ANNA C. AMES 
ON APRIL FIRST there were a dozen golden-eye ducks on the water and 
ducks of this species were in evidence throughout the month in larger or 
smaller numbers. On the twenty-fourth but one pair was seen. Scaup 
ducks, one male and two females, were observed on April third. Then on 
April nineteenth, a decidedly cold day, there were fourteen or fifteen scaups 
swimming near the shore. On the twenty-fourth there were nine or ten 
scaups, only two or three of which were females. Red-breasted mergansers 
were first observed in this area on April nineteenth; there were five males 
close in. They raised themselves on their tails and flapped energetically. 
One might almost have supposed they were trying to get warm. By the 
twenty-fourth fourteen mergansers were present, only four or five of which 
were females. Throughout the month scaup ducks were seen frequently 
and always (except in the first instance), as was the case with the golden- 
eye ducks and the red-breasted merganser, the males predominated in 
numbers. 
Blue-winged teal and mallards seem usually to arrive in pairs, already 
mated. Then the females disappear and the males are shy. Apparently 
the teal, if he thinks himself observed, takes quickly to cover. The male 
mallard suns himself or sleeps in some fairly inconspicuous spot. 
Loons have been unusually abundant this year. On April first, the first 
time this year that the area was visited by this writer, but one loon was 
moving majestically about on the water. Then the numbers increased until 
cn April twentieth nine of these magnificent birds were in full view. By 
the twenty-fourth these common loons had as companions two red-throated 
loons whose underparts were almost dazzingly white in the sunshine. 
It was almost the middle of the month when the coot arrived and his 
call did not sound across the waters until ten days later. The pied-billed 
grebe came a few days later than the coot and by the end of the month 
was still quite unobtrusive. 
It was a surprise on April fifteenth to hear a Canada goose cackling 
and to see it feeding on a marshy bit of ground. It was still in the area 
on April twenty-ninth. 
Someone has said that the air of the Touhy region is “always tremulous 
with the wings of gulls.” There are usually a fairly good number of 
herring gulls there, but the Bonaparte gulls, though seen elsewhere in 
large numbers earlier, were not observed at the clay pit water until 
April twenty-fourth. 
The trilling calls of three kingfishers were heard April first as they 
flashed about over the water. Then they disappeared from the area. 
Male red-winged blackbirds with their brilliant epaulets filled the air 
with their cheery spring notes the first of the month and were joined a few 
days later by their prospective mates. Meanwhile crows cawed overhead 
and song sparrows made music everywhere. A few fox sparrows scratched 
