26 RSH CEA USD UU BIOs Nb esa ele bey 
car). Jack Armstrong (compiler), 709 Medford Drive, Rockford, Illinois 
61107. 
Fi FT ve A 
Wisconsin, LAKE GENEVA. (Same area as in previous years.) Jan. 2; 
7:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.; clear; 6” of snow; wind west, 0-5 m.p.h. 18 observers; 
Clarence Palmquist (compiler), 834 Windsor Road, Glenview, I1l. 60025. 
Cornell Laboratory's Winter Count 
Reaches 12,000 and 71 Species 
A Lesser Black-backed Gull, a bird rare in this country that has been 
spotted in Ithaca for the past seven years, was among the missing in the 
annual 1970 bird count coordinated by Cornell University’s Laboratory 
of Ornithology. 
The European bird has attracted attention to this part of the country 
because it spent the past seven winters here, James Tate Jr., assistant 
director of the laboratory, said. Telephone calls from points as widespread 
as Maine and Texas have been received asking about the bird, Tate said. 
“We really don’t know why the bird hasn’t shown up this year,” Tate 
said. “We're still hoping to see it before the winter ends.” 
The bird was reported missing after an annual bird count which 
Ithaca area birders hold in cooperation with the National Audubon Society. 
Birds spotted inside a 15-mile circle centered at Mount Pleasant and Turkey 
Hill Roads are counted as part of a nation-wide effort. The count was for 
24 hours starting at midnight Dec. 31. 
Ithaca-area birders this year spotted 12,297 birds in 71 species com- 
pared with 8,437 birds in 67 species last year, Tate reported. The increased 
numbers spotted this year, he said, probably can be attributed to the fact 
that last year’s count was held in 15-degree-below-zero weather while 
the count this year was held in a comparatively balmy 15 degrees above 
zero. 
The top three species reported were the Starling, Mallard Duck and 
House Sparrow. The Starling and Mallard Duck, with a count of 6,115, 
accounted for more than half of the total birds counted. 
One rarity in this area during the winter was a Chipping Sparrow. 
The bird, common here in the summertime, did not choose to migrate 
south this year, for some unexplained reason. Three Robins also were 
spotted. 
Last year dozens of Winter Finches such as Red Crossbills, Evening 
Grosbeaks, Pine Grosbeaks, Pine Siskins and Redpolls were counted. This 
year, however, only one of these species was seen—the Evening Grosbeak. 
This year is proving a good one for hawks, Tate reported. Seven 
species of hawks were sighted, including 23 Red-tailed Hawks and four 
Goshawks. 
Four species of owls were reported—the Screech Owl, Great Horned, 
Barred and Long-eared. 
Abe AG IEE 
He clasps the crag with crooked hands; 
Close to the sun in lonely lands, 
Ringed with the azure world, he stands, 
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; 
He watches from his mountain walls, 
And like a thunderbolt he falls. 
—TJ ennyson 
