Detiote pase DU ON: CBS USeb Diels TN 9 
Adventures at a Small Bird-Banding Station 
By Mrs. J. BENTON SCHAUB* 
IT SEEMS aeons since one day I opened my mail and discovered I was the 
possessor of Permit No. 4269 to band birds in Illinois. To say I was a 
little surprised would be putting it mildly. 
I think I have always been interested in birds. As a child I sat upon a 
Southern Indiana hillside and watched the quail gather at twilight beneath 
the cedar trees in the old orchard. From that background, and with a 
husband and son just as interested in birds, you can see how natural it was 
for us on an early Sunday morning in April to gravitate to the home of 
the late William I. Lyon, in Waukegan, Illinois. We arrived in time and 
Mr. Lyon let us trail along with him as he traced his traps and banded 
some dozen kinds of birds. We were pleased that we knew them, and Mr. 
Lyon seemed pleased that we knew his swamp sparrows, and he talked 
with us of needing a banding station in Wilmette, wishing that we could 
and would cooperate. 
A few days later, while we were in the process of deciding, the permit 
arrived, along with our first supply of bands. A day or so later a govern- 
ment sparrow trap arrived and we proceeded to forget all about thinking 
that the decision rested with us in our joy at venturing into the unknown 
realm of bird-banding. That was just twelve short Springs ago, but what 
interesting days were ahead! Starting with one trap, we have gradually 
added to the equipment three more government sparrow traps, an everset 
sparrow trap, four or five drop-front traps of one, two and four cells, a 
woodpecker trap, and a grand water trap which came about a year ago 
from Mr. Holcomb, of Zion City. 
Our grounds are very shady, with elms, oaks, swamp ash and butternut 
trees, black haw, wild cherry, wild plum, a small mulberry, a hawthorne, 
some hazelnut bushes, and still lesser shrubs of snowberry, wild gooseberry 
and currant with raspberry and strawberry vines beneath. We have added 
little to this native material. We had too much already, but we did put 
in a wild crab or two for the blossoms and tried to make the grape trail 
along the fence. We have added two small shallow pools, each several times 
the size of a large bird bath, in order to maintain a constant water supply. 
We left the back part of our garden swampy, but built some small hills 
closer to the house where we could have our loved wildflowers. I looked out 
this morning to see my wild crocus coming through en masse, and a few 
fuzzy hepatica heads just showing. 
In this background we have tried to place our traps in all sorts of 
situations, in dry and marshy land, near and away from the house, in 
shady and in sunny spots, under the shrubbery and out in the open, and 
we have baited them with everything we could think of, soaked dried fruits, 
hard boiled eggs, oranges, apples, all kinds of grains, cracked and whole, 
mashed potatoes, bread and cake crumbs, and sunflower seeds, and we have 
even wired bright colored beads to the traps at times. 
*This paper was presented before the second annual Chicagoland Bird-Banding Con- 
ference, held March 14, 1942, at the Chicago Academy of Sciences. 
