Detlev As Ces OLN tb elle Hell IN 13 
ary or in March with the prime intention of seeing birds that do not come 
to Illinois, and all of them were rewarded handsomely. 
All these six took the tours offered by the National Audubon Society of 
the Okeechobee-Kissimmee area and the Everglades National park area, the 
two best methods of being certain to see such rare or localized species as the 
Florida sandhill crane, the burrowing owl, the great white heron, the rose- 
ate spoonbill, the reddish egret, and many others. 
These tours were described in the June, 1948, issue of the Audubon Bul- 
letin by Mrs. Janet H. Zimmermann, who took them with Mrs. Amy Bald- 
win in March, 1948. They have been highly successful and should continue 
to be a must for the bird watcher who has little time to spend. 
On their own, however, many out of the way spots were visited by these 
tourists with excellent results. In case other members plan to be in Florida 
in the coming months, they may find it useful to know where they can go 
to duck the usual tourist “attractions” and see birds and other wildlife in a 
natural setting instead. 
Mrs. Paul Stephenson, of Evanston, who visited Florida with her hus- 
band and son early in March, learned of a good spot from some people who 
had taken one of Alexander Sprunt Jr.’s tours at Okeechobee. The location 
is on Madiera island, off the west coast near St. Petersburg. At 140th ave. on 
Boca Ciega bay, which is on the east side of the island, is a sand bar where 
she found thousands of shore birds so solidly packed it was difficult to see 
the sand, she reported. Among her finds there, all at close range, were oys- 
ter-catchers, piping, semipalmated, Wilson’s, and black bellied plover; ruddy 
turnstones, willets, at least 200 knots, least and semipalmated sandpipers, at 
least 100 red-backed sandpipers, dowitchers, marbled godwits, sanderlings, 
75 black skimmers, herring, ring-billed, and laughing gulls, and Forster’s, 
common, least, royal, and Caspian terns. 
Mrs. Stephenson also was fortunate in being on Merritt island, off the 
east coast, at dawn one morning when a flock of 400 to 500 white pelicans 
flapped by, headed north. She felt she could have touched them with a 20 
foot pole. On that island also is the dusky seaside sparrow, easy to find at 
the end of the bridge to Titusville. On a golf course at Miami Shores, she 
found a large flock of smooth-billed anis. A visit to Highland Hammock 
state park in central Florida was not as rewarding as it might have been, 
for the region had had no rain for months. She found the pileated wood- 
pecker there, however. 
Miss Leona Draheim and Miss Millicent Stebbins, both of Chicago, were 
limited in having no automobile, but aside from the Audubon tours they were 
able to visit Fort Pierce and see the painted buntings. They saw eight, four 
males and four females, at the feeding tray where Miss Clara Bates has 
been luring them for years. They also saw quite a rarity in Miami—a robin! 
It was the only one they saw in Florida, and was considered quite unusual 
for that time of year. 
Mr. and Mrs. John Bayless of Chicago and Mrs. W. B. Douglas of Shel- 
byville, Ind., a member of the Illinois society, were in a party that twice vis- 
