32 DH ESA UlD?U.B OUNG (Bb Oi beer 
material from the nest. She was driven off by the female crossbill who then 
continued incubation. At 7 the next morning, 6 sparrows, 4 males and 2 
females, mobbed the nest. They picked at it causing the female to leave the 
nest momentarily to chase them away. 
The sparrows continued to pick at the nest for the next 20 minutes. 
At this time, the male crossbill returned and both crossbills attempted to 
drive off the sparrows. During this encounter, one male sparrow threw 
an egg from the nest. Examination of the embryo indicated it to be about 
one week old, and thus the birds probably began nesting about March 24. 
Both crossbills then flew away. About five minutes later, the female re- 
turned to incubate once more, but she was immediately driven from the 
nest by the sparrows. This time she left and never returned. 
At this writing, May 15, crossbills remain in the Bloomington-Normal 
area but no other nests have been found. 
fi rat fi A 
Pintails, Green-winged Teal Nest at Goose Lake 
by DAVE E. BIRKENHOLZ 
Professor of Biological Sciences 
Illinois State University, Normal 61761 
One pair of Pintails and two pairs of Green-winged Teal nested successfully 
at Goose Lake Prairie, Grundy County, in 1973, The Pintail nesting is the 
first recorded since the 1940s, according to Ford’s “Birds of the Chicago 
Region” (1956). The nesting of the latter species appears to be the first for 
the state in recent times unless a 1938 Palos Park record, reported in Ford, 
is authentic. 
The broods were located on a marsh about 60 yards in diameter and 
30 yards north of the northwestern corner of the nature preserve. Water 
depth was 30 inches maximum, and about one-fourth of the water surface 
contained bulrushes, cattails, and smartweeds, and the cover surrounding 
the marsh was mostly of bluegrass. 
A Pintail and a Green-wing drake were observed on a small pond at 
the southwest part of the preserve on June 9. On June 11, I found the 
female Pintail with 4 half-grown young on the northwest marsh. The next 
day I returned for pictures, but the ducklings immediately ran from the 
marsh into the grasses. The female remained, trying to distract me, and I 
did photograph her. 
That evening, at dusk, I obtained a brief glimpse of a female that I 
suspected was a Green-winged Teal with a newly hatched brood, but it 
disappeared into the vegetation before I could confirm the sighting. A 
Green-wing male rested with mallards, Blue-winged Teal, and the Pintail 
drake in a flooded field approximately 300 yards west of the pond at this 
time. 
I returned to Goose Lake Prairie on July 12, Two female Green-winged 
Teal with half-grown broods of 10 and 11 were on the marsh. I secured 
pictures of them. The Pintails could fly, and the marsh also contained one 
brood of Mallards and another of Blue-winged Teal. 
The nesting of the teal increases the possibility that 6 immature birds 
at the south part of Goose Lake Prairie July 31, 1971, and a pair that I saw 
at the northeastern part June 13, 1972, were local birds. 
