Des lee Ny Wala To be eDel Ni 47 
PRICE 
30c each 
postpaid 
locales for the Wilson’s Phalarope, 
LeConte’s Sparrow, and the marsh- 
es where Nelson’s’ Sharp-tailed 
Sparrow was first discovered). The 
breeding area at the Illinois Dunes 
State Park was declared a nature 
reserve, but protection came too 
late. The birds had disappeared 
some years before. 
The Piping Plover has the abil- 
ity to repopulate areas formerly in- 
habited, but whether this is pos- 
sible depends upon an overflow 
from Wisconsin and Michigan 
breeding areas. At present, the 
species is barely holding its own 
in those states. The nearest breed- 
ing locale now is Muskegon, Mich., 
across the lake. More importantly 
there appears to be no suitable 
habitat left for the species in 
northern Indiana or northeastern 
Illinois. It would seem possible 
that sandbars in the Mississippi 
River offer suitable habitat for the 
species, but to my knowledge there 
are no records from this area dur- 
ing the summer. Similar habitat on 
the Missouri River in Nebraska and 
South Dakota is utilized for breed- 
ing by the plover. 
As a migrant, the Piping Plover 
still occurs in both Illinois and In- 
The new IAS decal 
is more than 
twice this size. 
Our cardinal is pictured in blazing red. The 
background colors are beldly green and 
blue. Around the circle, “Illinois Audubon 
Society” is printed in a solid black. These 
new decals are for sale now. They can be 
mounted quickly and easily on the inside of 
any kind of window. They‘re_ especially 
suitable for your car. Order several. 
By Mail From: 
Illinois Audubon Society Bookstore 
1017 Burlington Ave. 
Downers Grove, Ill. 60515 
diana. It is a regular migrant, but 
in very small numbers (perhaps 3-6 
per year in northeastern Illinois) 
and should best be called a rare 
migrant. 
The best places to look for Pipers 
are the beaches of Lake County, 
Ill., in July and August and the 
Indiana dunes area during the 
same period. Away from Lake 
Michigan, the bird is a very rare 
migrant — there being only a 
handful of records from downstate 
areas, mainly the shores of large 
reservoirs like Crab Orchard in 
Illinois or carefully birded Geist 
Reservoir in Indiana. 
Documentation of this species’ 
decline in Illinois and Indiana 
shows that the disappearance of 
breeding pairs of Piping Plovers 
correlates with increased use of 
beaches for recreation by man in 
the 1950s and direct destruction of 
habitat by fill and industrializa- 
tion. While I have no direct evi- 
dence of disturbance on breeding 
pairs, the literature contains sev- 
eral references to an immediate de- 
cline in Piping Plovers, following 
heavy use of beaches. Man aids the 
decline of many species, but it is 
seldom that we see this happening 
