10 LHE AU DU BON JB LC Bebe 
broods here. Two pairs of king rails, about 28 pairs of red-winged black- 
birds, 8 pairs of long-billed marsh wrens, a pair of swamp sparrows, and 
two pairs of yellow warblers also nested in this marsh. The yellow 
warblers nested in the buttonbush shrubs in the middle of the swamp. 
The eight pairs of marsh wrens lived up to their reputation of hiding their 
nests among dummy nests, most of the dummy nests being completely 
finished and scattered in all parts of the marsh. 
The area bordering the chain of ponds and swamps running from the 
Arlington Heights road west to the cattail marsh harbors many less common 
species of birds. This area has a variety of habitat that is ideal for many 
species of Aves. The upper end is on the edge of. open woods, continues 
through an open meadow surrounded by woods, then across an open field, 
through a heavy woods across township road, and through more heavy 
woods down through low, swampy woods to the cattail marsh. Where it 
passes through the woods it is bordered with prickly ash, dogwood, willow, 
buttonbush, ash, elm and swamp white oak. In the open area at the upper 
end red-winged blackbirds, marsh wrens, swamp sparrows, yellow warblers, 
green herons, least bitterns, sora rails, meadowlarks, bobelinks and song 
sparrows nested. Two pairs of mallards nested and raised their young 
here, and three pairs of wood ducks raised families in trees on the edge 
of the woods. Several black-crowned night herons were seen in this area 
all summer but no evidence of their nesting was found. In the open woods 
along the edge of the meadow two pairs of Cooper’s hawks raised their 
families. Red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks seemed to favor these 
woods close to the open and to water as nesting sites, too. One of the 
Cooper’s hawk’s nests was within thirty yards of a mallard’s nest and about 
thirty feet from a pheasant’s nest, with all three birds incubating at the 
same time; but neither the duck’s nor the pheasant’s nest was disturbed 
by the hawks. The mallard’s nest was at the base of a clump of dogwood 
under a small hawthorn tree; the pheasant’s nest was snuggled between 
the roots at the base of a big red oak. 
In the open meadow a pair of upland plover was seen several times, 
but I do not know whether they nested in the neighborhood. In the heavier 
woods, along the chain of ponds, I found a long-eared owl’s nest with young 
in it in a crotch of a large white oak in a heavy clump of ash, elm and oak. 
I was sitting quietly on a log watching an ovenbird in hopes that it would 
show me its nest when I heard a peculiar gutteral hissing sound coming 
from the heavy clump of trees. It sounded as though it was coming from 
well up in the tree. It was different from anything I had heard and I 
started slowly and silently toward the clump of trees to investigate. I had 
gone some twenty feet when it stopped, so I stopped and waited. I was 
just about to give up when it started again. I moved over to the trees, 
when it again stopped. I took up a position where I could watch. All 
at once that sound started again, apparently coming from a crotch in a 
white oak tree about thirty feet from the ground. Almost immediately a 
large bird appeared, silently sailed to the crotch, dropped something in it 
and sailed away. It was a large owl, so I waited for its return. Soon 
after it left the young stopped calling. In about ten minutes they began 
