2 THE AUDUBON BULDUE PIN 
Most of it is covered with dense mangrove, but unlike the other flat 
mangrove islands in the vicinity, there are cabbage and coconut palms, 
orange and other citrus fruit trees growing on this island, and the portion 
where the main building is located has an elevation of over 25 feet. 
Mr. and Mrs. Stults, or Larry and Jan, as they are known to most 
of their guests, lost no time in making good their promise to show us 
birds we rarely or never see at home. After dinner, Larry took us in a 
canoe to see a bald eagle nest. It was in a dead tree above the mangroves 
on Middle Island, a small key about a half-mile to the north. Since the 
tree was almost at the shore line, we had an excellent view of the pair 
ot eaglets at close range. They were leaping into the air from the edge 
of the nest, and flapping their great wings in preparation for the future 
when they would be soaring a mile above the vast expanse of water and 
islands. 
As we started back, long ‘‘trains” of brown pelicans came sailing in 
from the west to their rookery on Bird Island. Larry referred to the 
first flight as the “arrival of the 6:15,” and as we were arriving home, 
in the distance we could see what we decided was “the 6:45.” 
Monday, April 7. — This morning I saw the first bird that was new 
to me. Two pairs of eastern ground doves were feeding about the edges 
of the lawn near the house. They were very unsuspicious little fellows 
and permitted me to approach within ten yards. 
While eating breakfast on the porch, I had noticed many warblers 
about the bushes in the patio and in the palm trees. It was amazing to 
discover later that they were all of one species, and, equally astonishing 
to me, that species was the prairie warbler. Although Howell in “Florida 
Bird Life” refers to the Florida warbler as a common bird of the keys, 
I was not prepared to see it in such numbers. I observed three birds 
with definite chestnut markings on the back, which is less pronounced, or 
absent, in the Florida race; hence I presume some members of the northern 
race are present. Even so, with the thousands of warblers that must be 
migrating along the coast at this time, why are none of the other species 
stopping on this island? 
Tuesday, April 8. — While three red-bellied woodpeckers were “a 
fightin’ and a feudin’” over a nesting hole in a cabbage palm, I watched 
a pair of ospreys fishing in the sound. It is a spectacular sight to see 
them pause in their flight and plunge straight down below the surface of 
the water. Incidentally, they miss plenty of strikes just as other fishermen 
do. Apparently, they caught only four fish out of eleven attempts. 
The Sand Spur is the sturdy boat that performs the same duties as 
the family car, and the truck on a farm, and today we all piled aboard to 
“go into town.” Barring the possibility of receiving mail, no one was 
really interested in town (Boca Grande), but every one liked the idea of 
the boat ride in the sunshine and the salt breeze. 
This evening high in the sky I saw eight man-o’-war birds sailing 
toward the mainland. I watched them through my glasses until they 
were out of sight, and at no time did any one of them flap a wing. It 
