PES AUDUBON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
inioleNcO lseAsUL DUB ON’ S 0 GLE WY 
2001 NortTH CLARK STREET, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
Number 52 December, 1944 
A Visit to a Wildlife Refuge 
By Dr. ALFRED LEWY 
EN ROUTE TO Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge, located near Ft. Sill in 
southwestern Oklahoma, we woke up in Oklahoma City on the morning of 
March 24. The hackberries were in leaf and the elms heavily laden with 
fruit, much more abundant than we usually see on our elms here. Another 
thing I noticed about the elms, and for that matter most of the other trees: 
the bark was grayer and more heavily ridged, and the branches more gnarled 
than the similar species here, the whole impression being that they had a 
harder struggle for existence. In general woods were limited pretty much to 
creek and river bottoms; nevertheless, willows were uncommon. The season 
was early and the country not very green, although I did see some winter 
wheat and oats just starting. Red bud and wild plum were in bloom, sprinkled 
throughout such woods as we saw on the 90-mile drive to Ft. Sill. Within a 
week the temperature suddenly dropped to 16° above around the fort, and 
these blossoms were badly nipped. On this drive few birds were seen: a few 
meadowlarks, two or three prairie horned larks, one or two unidentified 
buteos, and some crows; but at the fort birds were plentiful. 
My son’s house, located in the old part of Ft. Sill, backed up on Medicine 
Creek, down a steep and well-wooded declevity. Four-foot diameter pecan 
trees were common. I could distinguish them from the few walnuts only by 
finding nuts left on the ground from last fall. One very large and tall one 
was intertwined with a smaller hackberry, very much like the famous elm 
and oak combination on the Little Calumet River near Porter, Ind., known to 
those of you who have tramped the dune region. The commonest trees were 
the post oak and the black jack, not yet in leaf when I left. There were also 
burr oaks similar to ours in form, but with grayer bark and larger acorn 
cups. The general outline of the post oak is similar to that of the burr, and 
I had to depend on dead leaves and old acorns for identification. 
Medicine Creek was a fine exploring place for birds when not in use for 
army maneuvers. Everywhere was the call of the tufted titmouse, chilly, 
chilly, and for the first part of my stay he was right. Cardinals were 
abundant and singing. I saw one female occupying the same branch with a 
fine male. She was singing, but he soon flew away unimpressed, and I 
imagined she looked after him rather disappointedly. Chickadees were also 
common, and their chickadee was very rapidly repeated like that of the 
Carolina chickadee I had heard in North Carolina, and of which this one, 
I believe the plumbeous, is a subspecies. Incidentally, these chickadees had 
a four-note whistle call, a high note, two about three steps lower, then one 
highest of all. In contrast, the chickadees in Wichita Mountain Wildlife 
Refuge used only a three-note whistle, slightly different I thought, but their 
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