20 T HE. AU D-U-B‘O°N “BU lle 
Chicago, Cook Co. A new feeding tray has proved interesting at 
10828 S. Hoyne Ave. It is fastened to our dining room window sill. Close 
by is an oak tree to which is attached a rack for suet. The guests who came 
to breakfast on New Year’s morning were sparrow, starling, downy wood- 
pecker, white-breasted nuthatch, flicker, blue jay, chickadee, brown creeper, 
and male cardinal. Then, thrill of thrills!) We spied our evening grosbeak 
on the ground, gleaning crumbs of suet and a sunflower seed or two dropped 
by the other birds passing to and from the tray. This bird was first seen on 
the day following Thanksgiving, and then not again until January 1, 1942. 
We consider it one of our best sight records for the Chicago region and 
hope this rare visitor may linger in our garden.—Violet F. Hammond, 
Edw. K. Hammond. 
Chicago, Cook Co. I definitely included a Christmas bird census in my 
holiday program, but it turned out very differently from what I expected. 
The day set was Friday, December 26. It was a nice day, clear, with some 
sun, but the interested companionship turned out to be an absent quantity. 
I rounded up another friend with the lure of a drive to Geneva to purchase 
food for my bird feeding station. We were to watch for birds en route. 
The result was 20 lbs. of sunflower seed and 15 lbs. of cracked corn and 
wheat mixed and about a half dozen crows and one undetermined gull 
along the way. Not very satisfying except in the knowledge that whatever 
happened to the weather the birds about home would have an ample supply 
of food for some time. The formal census was postponed to January 1. 
However, on December 31 I had occasion to take some friends to Glencoe. 
While there we decided to look in on the Audubon Workshop, 520 Drexel 
Street. If any of my readers would like to see a demonstration of an all out 
program to attract birds to your home, do go to visit this interesting spot. 
All kinds of feeders and nesting boxes are hung all about, with chickadees 
and white-breasted nuthatches and downies in evidence all the time, and 
Mr. Pueschel, proprietor of the Workshop, says purple finches this winter 
too. There is also a demonstration of what to do about starlings. Indeed, 
you can pick up many other valuable and concrete suggestions if you are 
looking for them. We came away with the above mentioned birds added to 
our list, an automatic bird feeder, and two pounds of hemp seed to fatten 
up the home cardinals in preparation for zero spells in the weather. On 
the return trip we drove through the Skokie Marsh Project. Here we were 
rewarded with the record of a shrike. We thought he looked like a worthy 
note on a Christmas bird census and backed the car up to get a good look. 
Of course he flew, just as Peterson’s Field Guide says he should, low. I 
feared we would not see him again but, true to form, he landed again up 
in the top of another young tree. Four P.M. on a drizzly day is poor for 
positive identification. He was a shrike and according to the time of year 
should have been a northern shrike. Now I promised myself a nice long 
walk through the woods on New Year’s day, but the weather forbade. I 
set to work at the piano till the drizzling rain should pass, but this it 
refused to do. It rained harder,—it truly rained and rained. I gave up 
and sat down to address letters to future members of the Illinois Audubon 
Society, resolved to serve the cause of ornithology in some capacity.— 
Doris A? Plapp. 
