Perea Aw snus ba ING BU ya reN 
Go 
that they were the prize of the day. 
No other trip had seen them at such 
close range, or under light conditions 
that showed so well their wonderfully 
rich chestnut, greenish and purplish 
colors. We had a picnic lunch on the 
banks of the Kissimmee River and 
walked for about an hour along the 
river. Mrs. Baldwin discovered a 
Kentucky warbler, the earliest record 
for it in the area. On the way home 
she suddenly shouted “owl”. Mr. 
Sprunt stopped abruptly, but assured 
her she must be mistaken — there 
were no owls here. At that, a great 
horned owl flew out of a palm tree 
and settled on an exposed stump in 
the marsh. Another owl immediately 
joined it and began to feed it, pausing 
Audubon’s Caracara occasionally to eye us _ suspiciously. 
That was another record for the area. 
In the evening after dinner Mr. Sprunt drove us through the woods on 
the edge of town to hear our first chuck-will’s-widow. 
Photo by Allan D. Cruikshank 
‘The second day we drove north of the lake on the Kissimmee Prairie. 
The chief objectives of the day were Florida sandhill cranes and burrowing 
owls, and of course our leader produced them. The cranes were few in 
number, only eight individuals, but we had a good view of one group 
feeding under the palm trees, and another group in flight. The owls make 
their burrows in the loose soil along the road. One of our party was able 
to get many feet of moving pictures of them. They are most amusing 
little birds. They perch on the top of the burrow and watch you with their 
heads tilting slowly farther and farther around until you are certain they 
will topple over. Then they fly a short distance off. When they land they 
bob up and down several times like a small boy on a pogo stick. Audubon’s 
caracara fed in the road immediately ahead of the car and flew quite in- 
differently over and around us. Ground doves, and the white-eyed vireo 
were treats for most of us. 
The Kissimmee Prairie is Florida’s ranch-land. It is not generally 
known that Florida is second only to Texas as a cattle-raising state. The 
stock is being improved by cross-breeding with thoroughbred Brahma bulls 
from India which are tick resistant and indifferent to heat. Seminole 
Indians are employed as cowboys. We visited one of their reservations 
where there is a school conducted by the United States Indian Office. 
Small birds seen on the two-day trip were not numerous as we had 
only the lunch hour for hiking. Other water birds seen in ponds along the 
road included the greater and lesser yellowlegs, dowitcher, least sandpiper, 
