4 T HE ~A U Di USB ON (BULL LD ESaisias 
Whistling and flying about has decreased markedly since the preceding 
week, as nesting time nears. 
May 6. Cool and cloudy. One plover in the north block. A pair in the 
south block feeding, about six feet apart as usual. The male stopped from 
time to time, climbed a tussock and looked about. Only oncehe flew to a pole 
and whistled. A plover from some distant territory flew to a street marker 
and whistled, waited awhile, then flew back out of sight. The pair came out 
on the road and walked leisurely past the car, one on either side. Finally 
they flew back to the center of the road and we went home. 
May 6 to 20. We lost sight of the plovers although we made repeated 
trips at different times of the day. On May 20 a friend saw a pair here 
flying and whistling. 
May 30. 6-7 am. No plovers were in sight at the usual place. We 
left and returned about 7:30. Driving about four blocks north and six 
blocks east of early plover territory, we saw a plover on the street marker 
and heard chirping in the long grass near a clump of willows bordering 
a cultivated field. Getting out of the car we walked carefully through the 
grass. A pair of plovers flew about us in circles. Sometimes one went back 
to the deep grass chirping; sometimes it alighted farther away. Now they 
gave the short whistle a-wing, drawing back the head, raising it slightly 
and making a gurgling series of notes. It seems to be a louder version or 
development of the courtship twitter we heard earlier. This was the first 
day we heard the short whistle, though others say that both the long and 
short whistle are heard throughout the season. 
The birds were fearless now. They flew close or ran down the walk near 
us, not especially agitated but looking as if they did not know quite what 
to do about us. We guessed the young had just hatched. 
Leaving them in peace, we drove three blocks west where a plover stood 
on a telephone pole. When we got out of the car, another bird ran up and 
down along the curb, hunched over, excitedly giving sharp, warning chirps. 
Probably chicks were in the grass in the parkway and the mother was 
warning them not to cross the street. 
Another plover whistled to the south of us and we went to pre-nesting 
territory. We walked into deep grass and stood near a tree at the foot of 
a telephone pole. A plover flew to the pole and whistled and another chirped 
in the lush grass. We found an empty nest a few feet away, an opening in 
the grass slanting toward the east with a cup hollowed at the bottom and 
grasses arched overhead. 
May 31. 7:30 am. This was a red letter day. We met friends and 
went to the plover area by separate routes. At the first nesting site dis- 
covered the day before, the plovers were down the field on poles a block 
away. At another nesting site, no plovers could be seen or heard. 
At the third site also the birds were gone, but adults appeared on poles 
a block away. We drove up to the intersection there, where our friends 
were gazing intently through their binoculars at something on the ground. 
Here was luck! A pair of plovers and three or four young:(none of us was 
just sure of the count) were crossing the street about a quarter of a block 
