The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-29

CT that this great bird city, where the 1 inhabitants are free to come and go as
 they choose Is not in the heart of some dense swamp, miles away from human l habitation. The land on the south and southwest is cultivated and the home of
 the writer is within 200 yards of the
 northwest end. A railroad, wagon road and telephone line bound the eastern side I A busy factory, railroad station. and l a dozen dwelling houses are within 200 yards of its eastern and southern bor- der. Many nests are within 10 feet of
 the wagon road and within 90 feet of the | railroad; so near. in fact, that the peo-
 pie on the train daily see the herons on their nests.
 'sThe nesting water and marsh birds now include snowy heron Louisiana her on, American egret, little blue heron, green heron, yellow crowned night her
 on, purple gallinule, Florida gallinule, American oittern, least bittern, king rail, anhinga. wood duck. blue wing teal, gad wall and mallard besides a number of species of land birds which make their homes in the small twigs where the lar ger birds cannot go.
 Tn order to obtain food the herons daily cover a radius of many miles. l have seen them in numbers fully thirty miles from home, and l think at times they go much further, returning to the pond each night
 
 on the margin of this pond in the even 1 ing and watch the birds come home. | As far as the eye can reach in every | direction flock after flock may be seen. all coming in straight line to this spot some fly so low that they almost touch the | tops of the trees on the hills: others come
 in so high that they seem but specks in
 the sky. and when directly over the pond
 fold their wings and drop like an arrow 1 to the limb on which they are accus- | toned to roost.
 | AS flock follows flock and the trees l become more and more crowded the
 noise made by their quarreling and flap
 ping of wings reminds one of the hum and chatter of great city just after the shops and places of business have closed for
 the day and all the people are hurrying home.
 Tn the spring. summer and early fall i the nesting birds and their young have i! full control of Willow pond but in the 1 first cool nights of winter these leave
 for the tropical shores of South America, their places in the pond being taken by
 thousands of northern raised ducks, who md here equally as safe refuge as the 1 summer residents.
 Ducks were attracted to the pond in
 the same way as the herons. In 1909 began saving the wing tipped ones from my shooting trips; these were put In a little enclosure and fed until they became tame, then turned loose in the pond. A
 few pair of blue wing teal nestled, and | next winter these attracted other ducks who, finding that they were not molested,
 soon became very tame. There are proba- bly, from 1o,000 to 15,000 ducks of various
 kinds now using this pond each winter as a refuge during the day and going Ito the marshes and rice fields at night t, feed, just reversing the order of the day and night of the summer inhabitants,
 who search for food by day and rest at night.
 Tn the evening as the sun hears the horizon the ducks who have spent the day scattered over the pond begin to swim together with a great quacsing and chat tering, until all are gathered into one bis flock, making as much noise as if the fowl of thousand farmyards had been gathered together at feeding time.