Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1885-08-28
STORMED BY THE BIRDS.
A Lighthouse Keeper OF Maine
Gives His Experience.
The Tower Bombarded with Birds at Night
and Hundreds Found Dead

Quasi Atto pCSA sSAAAA5 q AOpOAgOA SUNK
of his experiences while on duty al
the lighthouse at Rockport: eyes, we
see and hear curious things, and as for
monotony it's enough to drive one
mad, and has done so in some cases.
Married men fare better, as when wo-
men and children are around it isn't
quite so lonesome; but it's bad enough.
My station for a number of years was
a rock about 200 feet long and 100
feet wide, and in a gale of wind the
house stood right in the water, with
the seas rolling all round. Yes, it
was shaky.
zone night" continued the speaker,
81 remember some fishermen got
blowed off shore and came in there,
and what night it was About mid
night some one sings out, The lamps
out And so it was. Up we rushed,
half dozen of us, scared to death, as
ten minutes might cost a good many
lives and a vessel could come within
twenty foot of our house before she
struck. By the time we got up we
found the place full of smoke and
see something had fouled the chimney,
and what dye suppose it was ?
You'd never guess. 1t was blow
ing fit to take the buttons right off
your coat; but some one had to go out
side and climb up the rod on the very
top of the light and see what was the
trouble. 1t was a close call and we
tossed for it. My mate drew and
started. We tied rope around him
and up he went and did the job. He
came back alive, but with the whitest
face ever see on a live man. He
said he wouldn't do it again for love
or money.
''But what dye suppose he found in
the chimney, stuck fastP Nothing
more nor less than one of these ERE
Mother Carey's chickens, jammed in
as tight as it could get, and dead, of
course We get regularly pelted with
birds in the light, and that is the rea-
son the glass is made so thick, as al
most every night one or two birds hit
against it. Sometimes in the spring
and fall hundreds Of 'em will strike in
the course Of a night. You see at
this time the birds are migrating and
flying off shore along the coast and on
foggy nights they only see the blaze
Of the light. They make a break for
It and down they go, and in the morn
ing the rail, iron and glass will be all
blood and feathers,
"You can hardly imagine such a
sight" said the lighthouse keeper. 81
remember one night late in September
there was what we call dry fog, the
kind that CLEANS and looks bright
sometimes without a light 1 went
out on the walk around the light,
thinking 1 heard a curious noise, and
the minute I got out I tell you was
taken back. There were thousands of
birds, I should say, darting about in
the luminous fog, with light dancing
on their backs and wings, so it re-
minded me Of insects about lamp.
The roar of their wings and their cries
was such that you couldn't hear your
self speak, and hung on to the rail
almost crazy from the uproar. But
came to mighty quick, tell you, for
the first thing I knew I got a knock
on the head, a bird taking me right
side of the neck; then, as 1 turned,
another struck me in the back, and 1
don't doubt but that I'd have been
fairly bombarded off if 1 hadn't got in.
The birds kept it up all night, and in
the morning we counted over 600 dead
at the foot of the lighthouse. They
were of all kinds-sparrows, hawks,
robins and mostly duck and snipe,
birds that travelled along the shore
going south. You see, they had seen
the light, and getting confused ran
right into it. One night we were sit
ting at dinner, when the first thing
we knew the window went with a
crash, and some big thing came whiz-
zing and sprawling across the table,
hitting my man fairly in the chest and
knocking him clean out of his chair.
1t was duck that had seen the light
and came a-pounding through the
window, dropping dead on the table.
"Wrecks sometimes come in, but it
amt often if the light is kept up. In
one light was we got shut up in a
gale of wind and had to stand right
by the light to keep it a-going; but
out it finally went; something got
wrong with the machinery. After a
while we thought we heard yell, and
going down we managed to get out,
and there was brig hard and fast,
with her bowsprit sticking a good ten
foot over the rocks, and Oh it the crew
came ashore, jest like a bridge, not
one of 'em getting lost 1t wasn't
our fault, as they couldn't have seen
the light anyway, the sea was break
ing about the house so, and there was
such black fog running. Before the
Boon Island Light was built a crew
came ashore there and starved to
death right in sight of land"