Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-05-21
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
BIRDING
BY SAMUEL sCOVILLE Jr.


Have you ever tried birding? IT'S just az
much fun as fishing and shooting and you
don't have to kill anything. Then, too, you
dont need to spend any money on gun and
hshinE tackle and railroad expenses. All
you need is pair OF opera glasses, a pencil
and blank book II YOU can get one OF
those pocket bird books with coored pictures
80 much the better. The game Is to see how
may birds you can Identity between dawn
ard dark. Any bird that you can tell by sight
or sound counts Either set the name down in
your blank book or, better still. make
check-mark against the name on the check
list Of a daily bird-record. There are about
100 different kinds Of bros migrants and
residents, which can be seen around Phila-
delphia 1 have had the rames Of these
printed in a checklist and will be glad to
se1s send one TO any boy who wants to keep q
Birding is like golf. You can have lots of
on II or oy ops ef yop or yoH s3 play If
instance, YOU start In some morning and you
blue Jay. i'ISr purple grackle, cRipphs:
sparrow, a wood-thrush and g bluebrd. ali Of
score eight and that is your record; The next
day YOU try TO break this record. Before long
. and 10 Years Of age Who have each extract.
ed a pair OF held-glasses from tBslr inpecuni-
After You get above S 80 it i becomes harder and
the boy who can Identify 40 can get Boy
records 1t will be interesting to look back
Trying to break bird, record is exactly xaSstt,lyy
IKE trying to break 4 golf record iou VII
particular day seems to be missing -,
Last Last saturday Nay 15i the, misJEat0n Ja I ,S1 Of
mlad TO take, a day off and try e o., break ny ny
9d rssSd S,d of the year bee %hR Sp n two We
eel 4 5rd and we nsss, ssd sso4 s
Of those e' ID did M not see or hear personally Be
fore LETT my Sleeping conGh; at 70 o Gloek, k,,d
alto notes. a meadow lark, purple grackle, q
crow. Ticker. q mourning % dove dove rn wno b}eb S3T}eb
had a nest in a wren box outside of the porch;
eh@nE a np from m0Ga the beeeR trees at the foot Of
the hill. This made IL to start with IN
Poe and Gf %o2ds Saw 5 gc oG
under side Of its wings sh9wsd white ites WIN IN
tall, / sccred It as the broad winged hawk,
m e ypoed bpeast hoppsd from the ground
to lower limb and I recogni5ed the very or
IN m'tRn those tF%s woods, for e minute later saw
another whose back was of an olive brown
seh wash 0f brown It was the Sys-baSksdd
On hour surely tel him from n the sSdsG olive
. head were gray, while the side Of the olive
Safa bs was my rst ef's thrush Of the
year On my way back to breakfast started
tail. and saw the crimson back and black
wings of scarlet tanager In a nearby tree;
Just as I coming out OF the woods !
heard the two n9tes which h had nSt heard
since last e9r nod Une TeS sne
bird with two white wing-bar which lives in
the and of the the o'gsF cE
both arrivals went throush ne Ea nI,,. Tnsn
Alter @ breakfast walked down THAN Creek
farther on his cousin, the spotted sandpiper.
Both Of them bob their tails and wade a. along Ions
lacks the spotted breast and shows more I,i white
IN ths small sS T6fH brd Ry WIN ST Striped % yellow breast
walking beside the water and bobbing IKE
ne water TahS tRrusS which Is really not thrush at
all. but ranks with the wac6Ierg 1t can an
rSsE 6e apf the Oy road ID the loud
oodle-whee -oodle" OF the Carolina wren, which
NV mind to find its nest some day. \ gruntng
note from pr renT9y tree w an9 a9d down the
side of n tree and recognized the white.
breasted ID eR FeFt csme the
white warbler streaked with his his colors; wniSh
Then the l redstart few out spreading its salmon.
striped tail like fan and showed ts S2,s c1iors
throat, with its black mask; the Kentucky
warbler with It's loud song something Ike Ike
Warbler, vng With his black throat and square
hhtS td Be tno ye6W cTowRed head
yellow wing pitches and yellow taiitP1atehb 1; b.as ana
Then came an event. From, the lower
hra nches OF tulip tree I heard strange
song and saw a bird with a yellow breast
streaked with black and with ?. brownish.
Cape Nav warbler. which I rarely see. One
OF the Interesting things about birding Is that
any day YOU are liable to see some rare bird
which YOU may never again. few min
utes later heard a familiar song which ended
WITH the accented sylabes 'whee-choo,' and
I recognized the chestnut sided warbler with
his b e BPd said
murmuring trees" and saw the black black
and yellow cheeks I struck into the road at
this point, and picked up the song-sparrow
chewink all black and white and brown, and
the red-eyed vireo who sings in a series OF
three notes and has black line through his
eve with white stripe Just above 1t.
Crhe second and concluding instalment Of
Mr. scovilles article will be published in next
Tuesdays issue.)