The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1927-06-08

May 20. The blackpoll had been re-
ported previously from other To-
calities. The yellow throat was
noted at Argusville May 12, Minot
and Tower City May 22 and James
town May %.
The Yellow warbler
OF our summer resident warblers
the commonest\is the yellow warbler,
an all yellow bird but with more or
less gray-green on the back, cspe-
cially in the female. and orange
streaks on the breast Of the male.
This species was seen at jamestown
May Ia, Minot May Is, Argusville
May l6, Fargo and Flaxton May 10,
Tower City May Fl. The ovcnbird
and redstart may be found nesting
in the deep woods. Both are quite
common during migration, the oven
birds having been here the last two
weeks but are nearly all gone by
this time. The rcdstart is a later
arrival and was first seen at James
town May Il, Tower City and Fargo
May 20.
The yellow throat is another COM
mon summer resident. It's yellow
with broad black stripe through
the eye. and inhabits the underbrush
or tall weeds. A chat was seen at
Argpsville May II. This is similar
to the yellow throat, but much larger
and with a narrow black stripe. 1t
is rare bird in the eastern part of
the state, but the long-tailed chat
Is q4lte common summer resident
in the thickets of the western part
Of the state.
The arrival of the common king
birds has always seemed to the writer
distinct mark of the passing of
the frosty nights. His average date
for them is May II and the different
years show little variation. The early
records were May II on one year and
May IA on three years. On one
year it was May 20, and on two May
II. Only once had it been later than
this and that was May 80 for last
year. The present year has added
another exceptionally late date, for
the writer did not see his first king
bird until May go. They have been
reported from Argusville May 10,
Flaxton May 2l, Tower City May 90
1t is little hard to account for
some differences in records. One
should be in the field more than
most of US are able to be in order
to be fairly sure that the dates are
significant. 1t may easily happen
that one misses seeing the first ar
rival for several days.
Goldfinches were reported at
jamestown May II. Argusville May
Is, Tower City May %, Fargo May
10. The writer saw on May % about
70 of these handsome birds feeding
upon the dandelton seeds where the
plants had biossomed early. The
time of arrival of the g0ldfinches
seems hard to explain. They winter
we'll northward, to some extent in
southern Minnesota, and yet they are
! among the latest of the birds to
appear in our region. They are seed
eating birds, and this sort in general
are among the early migrants, the
| insect feeders being more closely de-
pendent upon warm weather. Pos
sibly the dandelion is the first seed
which is acceptable to their taste.
Cedar Waxwing
The cedar waxwing is another bird
which falls into the same group with
respect to migration. They winter
commonly in the central states and
were observed in Minneapolis the
past winter They are among the
last, however, to reach our part of
the country. The writer saw a flock
of about Is on May % and since that
time they have been frequent Wis
itors to the apple trees in the neigh
borhood They had not been reported
elsewhere at the date of writing.
They feed grcedily upon the apple
flowers. IN general they feed largely
upon fruits, sof1etihles Causing con.
siderable damage to cherries. Red
cedar berries are among their favor
tie foods in winter. In this state
the writer has frequently found
them associated with the so-callcd
highbush cranberrics.
A humming bird was reported at
Argusville on May %, and the writer
saw one the preceding day. Earlier
in the day he had exam, med a large
hedge Of Caragana and found the
flower buds still far from opened.
This hedge he had found to be one
of the favorite places Of the birds.
In the afternoon he discovered a
humming bird on his neighbours yard
at Caragana bush which was
sheltered by the house and more ad-
vanced. At this season they visit
also the apple blossoms as we'll as
columbinc and honeysuckle. They
have been induced to visit bright
colored artificial flowers provided
with vial Of sugar water.
Eastern North Dakota has but one
humming bird, the ruby roated,
which goes as far north as Labrador
and Alberta. In the winter southern
Florida marks their northern limit.
In the western states the rllfous
humming bird is the most widely
distributed, travelling northward as
far as the southern part of the main
body of Alaska. Two other species
reach southwestern Canada, and
about dozen more occur in south
western United States. 1t seems
strange that half dozen of the hun
dred and more species which abound
in the tropics should have acquired
tor retained) the habit Of those ex-
tended migrations.
Rio TnSu1atinOr ROard