Norwich bulletin., 1914-06-19
THE QUAIL TRAP
Novel List of Transpantns Wild Fowers- Game Birk and Wayside Birds yanshins Long Point Flowers Bird Colonies Crowded Of the Point.

At Sunnyside, Norwich, and at Old Field Noank, I have seen them carry Ing ducks eggs stuck on the point of their bills. On Fishers Island, when the night herons were disturbed from their rookeries in the swamp east of Chuckymount, I have several times seen the raiding crows carry away score of eggs.
 That rinanscks are hardier than quail is now well established fact up here. A second pair of pheasants Is nesting little way Northwest of us, and still a third nesting pair is re- ported by the game-warden near at hand. Of these nests of ruffed grouse found in our own woods this season. two have been destroyed by crows or sxunks, and one in the woods of Irving Paine the ganfe-warden met the same fate. But lately three bidd1 grouse dusting young on the narrow cross roads have been reported by neigh bors.
 But what shall I say about the com parative number of our wayside birds. There are more kingbirds, orioles and redshouldered hawks than usual here, but a noticeable decrease in bobolinks
 meadow larks. biuebirds, whippoor- wills and bobwhites. No wrens. or-
 chard orioles, crested fiycatchers. No
 house-martins are reported. The
 same pair of marsh hawks, the same .pdlT OI DllIeTns, ana the same two
 pairs of Phoebes. Never any more.
 Now what becomes of their young is
 the question that still puzzles me.
 Runners came back in greater num-
 bers to the yellow towering currant-
 ruby throat. first. storehouse.. of
 quarrelsome selves on a monstrous
 wigelia on our lawn which in turn
 they will leave for the big trumpet
 creeper when it blooms. They drive
 away all birds from the wigelia and
 seem to have a special spite for the
 big butterflies which are unusually
 common this year. Is this because
 caterpillara are such plague? Cocoons beyond belief are now forming here. Spraying the trees did not seem to kill our everyday birds. since orioles, tho greediest eaters of tent, caterpii- lars have returned in force and nest ed in all .their.. old.. an. in. some new places between us and the village. More robins nesting here than ever before is the common cry, bellied young are on the walls, fences and low apple trees all about us. Luckily for them our cherry trees have (for three years in succession)
 an abundance of ripening fruit. But we miss the three or four usual re- and the late pairing-call of bobwhite is not the continuous performance of last year.
 The growing community of health l seekers on Groton Long Point is fast narrowing the breeding range oi
 many rare and useful birds. Before the usnea-covered groves at the base of the Point were cut of, there were | larger colonies of breeding summer residents there than at any place ever
 knew at the North. By the average | record of three careful observers l there were forty pairs of parula warb- i lers, eight pairs of veerys. twenty pairs green and night herons ten pairs | orchard oriole by actual count, many
 black-billed cuckoos, several pairs oi rail- three colonies of redwings, ant | an Eden full of catbirds, robins. ant kingbirds living in harmony with the rarer birds. Towards Lands End, | osprey, black ducks and quail, and ter l pair of night clever sets of eggs one year. Except on th' | Cobb lot in Mohegan Park, when th, l hazel brush overrun it at just tht right height, I never dreamed of hal | as many prairie. chestnut sided, Mary | land yellow throats, summer warblers
 and chats, as nestled here regularly | The purple -fnches, orchard orioles ] draped. and festooned by the gre! | hanging lichen, were marvels of beau l ty. But, alas. there are fewer ant | fewer American goldfinchesy wher, once the air was full of thistledown | upland blower and oyster-catcheri have said farewell, and never agaii will there be visions of snowy heroI
 wading in the salt lagoons of GrotoI Long Point.