Evening star., 1915-05-26
AUDUBON SOCIETY
ENDS BIRD TRIPS
AlI-Day Saturday Jaunts This
Spring Described by
Prof. Cooke.
129 PERSONS OBSERVED
TOTAL OF 1923 SPECIES
Many Attended Each Walk Early
Party" Meets With Much Sue
cess-Localities Visited.

Prof. Wells W. Cooke of the bureau
of biological survey, who for Years
has riIoied bird lovers during their
annual rambles of investigation into
the feathery Kingdom. has prepared
report for this years series of bird
trips" by the Audubon Society. The
report says:
The Audubon Society of the District
of Columbia has just closed Il most
successful series of all-tlaN Saturday
bird trips The interest in these trips
and the members attending had become
so great that this wear. for the first
time, the attendance had to be re
stricted to members and their invited
guests. The custom inaugurated last
year of starting an early party" an
hour ahead of the regular schedule
met with much favor that it was
continued for all the walks this year.
high average. both in attendance
and in kinds of birds seen. was main
tanned throughout The season. and the
12a different persons saw total of
123 species of birds.
The first walk. along the Eastern
branch. was April u. the earliest date
the society has ever entered the woods
and. though = raw, chilly day forty
one persons were present and saw of
rarities tn" yellow palm srbler. rusty
blackbird and Wilson snipe. The
back uaTdncsS of the migration season
at that date was reflected in the num-
Der of kinds of birds seen. which was
only forty-siN, as compared with fifty
seven over the same ground April is.
1914. However, the following week
Vas warn and the @birds made up
the lost time: indeed. the seventy per-
sons who went to'DNke. Va. April %
saw seventy different species of birds
the highest number ever seen by the
society at that place. which is de-
serNedlS considered one of the best
bird sections in the vicinity of Wash
ington. The members succeeded in
finding both the Henslow sparrow and
the yellow -throated warbler. the two
raritieS most aSSiduously sought fo,.
at Dyke. and also the red -bellied wood
pecker. which many of those present
saw then for the first time in their
lives. The days records produced the
first reports for the year for the green
heron. ovcnbird. grasshopper sparrow
Maryland Yellowthroat white-eyed
Sireo wood thrush and yellow throat
ed vireo. showing how large a migra-
tion must have taken place just previ-
Gus to this date.
Roughest Walk.
The third outing. May ]. found fifty
and Black pond. the roughest waly and
scramble ever undertaken by the So
ciety. When the remark was made
that the young people could follow the
leader down the face of Prospect rock
while the old people could go round by
an easy grade, few were found willing
to acknowledge that they had reached
the shady side of life. Last year, when
the society visited Eagle rock or the
I,I "a
scared by to show that the rock was
properly named. This year the bird
was obliging enough to show himself
at Prospect rock and become the spe-
observed
May was bobolink day. when the
sfSty-tNo persons who walked from
Franklin Park to Niresco and "the
Wickiup' found field filled with bub-
Ding song and had near views of both
male and female birds. Bobolinks came
early this year and were unusually
common, the same remark applies to
the Cape May warbler. which was seen
both May and Nav Is and on so
many other days and in such large
numbers that there are actually more
District records for this species the
spring of 1915 than for the whole fif-
teen years previous to 1911 The most
curious find of the eighty-one species
seen was a long-billed marsh wren out
In the middle of piece of heavy tim
ber, miles from any marsh suitable for
a nesting site.
Few. If any. trips have ever been
taken by the society that proved so
thoroughly satisfactory rs that of NAV
IS TO Fort Washington. The two pre-
vious excursions to this place. made
many years ago. were by steamer on
the river. This year the sixty-tlree
persons present took the Mount Vernon
cars to the station of Hunter walked
70 Fort Hunt and crossed to Fort
Washington in a motor ferryboat. The
birds wanted to be seen. and tree swal-
.ows sat with bank swallows on tn.
wires. while both orioles. cowbirds.
shrfkes and bobolinks perched in plain
s,ght and waited obligingly for the
field glasses to be focused. Every spe-
cies of swallow occurring in the east
ern Crited States was seen on this
trip. u was particularly warbler day
and among the total of ninety kinds OF
birds for the day--exceeded only once
In the history of the society-twenty-
one belonged to this interesting and
brilliantly colored family.
Final Trip of Season.
The final trip OF the season was taken
Saturday. May %, and as usual. the
party went. to Difficult run and Great
Falls. BY this time In the season vege-
tation is at its height and the birds
are hard to see in the thick leaves. but
rhe UftE-SlN persons present saw
eighty -one kinds of birds, an unusu-
ally large number both for persons
and species. The party had a most
satisfactory view of male and female
of the rare summer tanaEer. found a
Kentucky warbler's nest with its four
&DecEled eggs. and saw the olive sided
fycstcher. which is rare around
Washington that Il has been seen only
five times in sixty years
On each trip the members separated
into several parties for the better OBJ
serva tton Of the birds Each party was