THE SUNNY SOUTH OÖLOGIST. | ||
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| Vol. 1, No. 2. | Gainesville, Texas, April, 1886. | Published Monthly. 50 Cents per Year. |
Notes from Southern California.
We have been having a bountiful share of rain in this neighborhood of late; and while we have been having warm drenching rains in the low lands, there has been a steady fall of snow in the mountains. As a result of the latter fact large numbers of Cedarbirds, Robins, Catbirds, etc., have left their usual haunts (the mountains), and taken refuge in our warm orange groves and vineyards. And now a person cannot walk a mile through the suburbs of the town, without noticing several large flocks of these birds feeding contentedly by the roadside, or industriously probing among decayed limbs, or under dead leaves for bugs and larvæ, upon which they delight to feed. These birds however do not breed in this locality, but as soon as the warm weather sets in, they betake themselves to the remote valleys and fastnesses, situated among the almost inaccessible ranges of the Sierra Madre. Here all are protected from the ravages of that “fell egg-destroyer,” the school-boy. They breed and rear their young in peace, and we see no more of them until the next “cold spell” sets in and causes them to again visit us, or properly speaking, “our warm climate,” until the clemency of the weather will again permit them to return to their accustomed haunts. Further north however these birds can be found among the woods and forests the whole year ’round.
At this season of the year we are not alone favored with visits of the land birds, but the aquatic element is very abundantly and variously represented among our ponds and streams; in fact, out of a bag of twenty or thirty ducks, which a hunter may be so fortunate as to secure as a reward for a day’s sport, he can generally single out from twelve to fifteen different species, from the majestic old Mallard or “Greenhead,” to the diminutive Butterball or “Silkduck.” Quite a number of these ducks remain with us during the breeding season; in fact I have personally obtained “sets” of eggs of the Cinnamon Teal, Baldpate, Mallard, Ruddy Duck, Godwall, Redhead, Pintail and Greenwinged Teal; besides I have heard several authentic accounts of “sets” of some other species of ducks being secured by other Oologists in different portions of this county. The principal or most profitable grounds on which to successfully search for nests of various species of ducks and other waterfowl is amongst the immense “tule lands” and sloughs of a marsh called “Gospel Swamp.” This is a place about sixty miles from Los Angeles, and occupying many square miles of country, including the bogs, willow swamps, tidelands, etc. It is a veritable paradise for ducks of all species; and during the sporting season I have spent some very pleasant and well repaid time, by trudging around its extremities, armed with a good ten-bore “breech-loader,” with an evil intent upon the unsuspecting ducks and geese. Not withstanding the thousands and thousands of birds annually slaughtered in these swamps by the professional “pot” or market hunters, as well as the havoc wrought by amateur sportsmen, still the number of the birds never decrease to a perceptible extent; but, like the “Hydra,” where you kill one to-day, you will find two to-morrow. Along towards spring the birds begin to assemble together in vast flocks of countless thousands, and depart for unknown latitudes in the “far north.” Their time of departure seems to be invariably during the night; in fact I have often noticed large numbers of ducks assembling at the same given lake or pond. This congregating would perhaps occupy a lapse of several days, the numbers apparently augmented by large additions each succeeding night. At length, after a vast number has congregated, you will notice a great deal of excitement among the large flocks; a seeming dissatisfaction and restlessness, evinced by loud calls and continual fluttering, splashing, etc. After all these signs of busy life, if you visit the lake the next morning you will probably find it lonely and deserted, without a vestige of yesterday’s tumult and life, save a few lonely, sick looking Teals, who were too weak or tired perhaps to join the flight of their fellows the preceding night. But they may wait for the next flight which at once begins to form, with new additions each succeeding night, and in a few days we have an exact repetition of the assemblage and flight of a few days previous. The assembling of these birds is usually at some large lake convenient for their purpose, and the additions in the shape of small straggling flocks, are very probably detachments of ducks which have left the small ponds and streams, where they have passed the winter in detached flocks, and as if by some previously concerted plan assemble here so as to take their departure en masse for the possible view of both company and protection.
A. M. Shields,
Los Angeles, Cal.
North American Birds.
I will hereafter give in this column each month, as near as possible, the breeding places, and the time of nesting of the Birds of North America; beginning this month with the family Turdidae.
1. Wood Thrush—Hylocichla Mustelina—Nests usually found in low, damp woods. Dates of nesting, from May 10th to June 15th.
2. Wilson’s Thrush—Hylocichla fuscesceus—The situation of the nest is retired, and often in the depths of woods. Begins nesting about May 20th.