Banding Some Birds of Prey
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202] ee•ralNotes Bird-BauclingOetobe, The birds banded are as follows: Adult Common Terns ................................ 34 Immature Common Terns ............................. 1966 Immature Roseate Terns ............................. 300 Total.... ] ...................................... 2300 --CHARLES B. FLOYD, Auburndale, Massachusetts. Banding Some Birds of Prey.--In the two years since I got my banding-licenseand commencedbanding whenever opportunity offered, without trapping;I have bandedfourteen birds of prey and had two returns. On June 9, 1932, I climbed to a Red-shoulderedHawk's nest.that I had long knownand found two young still downy but for pin-featherson their wings. One merely openedhis mouth wide and stuck out his queer-shaped tongue at me; the other backed to the verge of the nest, stood upright with little wingswide-spread, and shrieked. His call had the typical downward inflectionof his kind. The parent answered,swooping down within a yard of me, but then vanished. •'either of thesebirds (B661484-5) has yet been heard from. Others were raisedin 1933 but had already flown when I went to band them. On June24, 1932,I wasguided by H. C. Holton of Nit. Hermon, .•lassa- chusetts,to a Marsh 'Hawks' nest which he had discoveredon May 29th while searchingfor a Bitterns' nest. It had then containedfive eggs,but we found only three young, of different ages. The oldestscrambled off into the bushes,and had to be brought back by the wings and held (very belligerent)until banded,when it again dashedaway. The secondresisted with quick strokesof claws and bill, but remained on the nest. The third was diminutive and very meek. Three weekslater, July 15th, one of these Harriers was shot in the neighboringtown of Bernardstonby a twelve- year-oldfarm-boy. Alarmed at findinga bandon thebird, h•e buried it, and only much later told his father about it. Hearing the story from the father, Mr. L. E. Nelson,taxidermist, of Winchester,New Hampshire,dug up the remains and forwarded the band to Washington. Presently 1 was notifiedthat B661476was "reportedshot by L. E. Nelson"--an ambiguous sentencethat I misinterpreted. I wrote Mr. Nelson (whom I had met) reproachinghim with killing, so young, a bird protectedin Massachusetts. He indignantly replied with the above account. On June 28, 1932, I climbed into the church-steeplein Springfield, Massachusetts,where two broodsof Barn 0wls had beenraised the previous year. Two addled eggsand two downy featherlessyoungsters were found on the dung-crustedmssone'-platform. They hissedfuriously and backed away. Neither parent appeared. A few days later, an adult Barn Owl entered an eighth-fiooi window in an office-buildingand was held captive for severaldays. Fearful of starvation for the young, I wrote the Spring- field papersabout them, and the sonof the churchianJtor took them under his protection. On October21st one of thesetwo wasshot "by mistake for a BarredOwl" at Whitman, Massachusetts,eighty-two miles due east bf Springfield."This kind of owl is unknownto me; pleasesend me informa- tion," wrote the killer in returning the band to Washington. Long, pur- poselessflights of this kind probably first brought to Massachusettsthe Barn Owls that now seemso firmly established. The nest-mate,B661481, has yet to be heard from. In 1933 Barn Owls bred in the tower of the Court House,unsuccessfully (because so early) in February,but successfullylater in the spring,and their unsophisticatedchildren got into many difficulties vo.1933 G•zral Nores [203 in July,entering a photographer'sstudio, perching where boys could nab them, and evengetting picked up by traffic-policemenfrom the middleof streets. Two that were taken to the Societyfor Preventionof Cruelty to Animalsheadquatters were banded by me, C616776-7,before release. On July 15, 1932,the weak,shrill scream of a Broad-wingedHawk called my attentionto a nestfifty feet up in a whitepine in rocky,wet woodlandin Hadlev. With alarmedexpressions, three youngwere found in the nest,. I had'onlyone No. 6 bandleft, andhad to put No. 5'son twoof them. They offeredno resistanceto the operationof banding. Their eyeswere baby-blue,and their featherswere about half grown. A numberof hawk featherswere in the nest, which I supposedhad been shedby already molting parents. •,Vhatwas my surprisewhen at the Harvard .•[useumthey butwere twopositively weeksidentifiedlater, I went aseggs back, of butthe theCooper's nestwas Hawk!empty As andsoon I ascouldI co)ulnldo yJ hear,and barel• glimpse, the hawks inthe foliage near bv: so I reportedthe threeas Cooper s Hawks.Revisiting the place on June•28, 1933, I several timesheard and finally glimpseda Broad-wing,but the high nestlooked unoccupied. July 16th, however,I determined to climb to it again and found in it three cold, rain-stainedeggs. TheseI comparedwith museum specimens:they werepositively the eggsof a Broad-wingedHawk. They matched, moreover,the half-shellsI had taken, with the Cooper'sfeathers, from the nest in 1932. So I feel convinced that bands A538161-2 and B661483are being worn by B•:oad-wingedHawks, and I explain the presenceof the feathersof the Cooper'sHawk either by the captureof a sickor woundedbird of that speciesor by supposingthat a hungryCooper's Hawk daringly attacked the young Broad-wingsand was despatchedand eaten by their parents. On July 8, 1933,finally, I heardfrom a swampywoodlot in Westhampton the weat•scream of a Red-shoulderedHawk. Uponinvestigation I dis- covereda youngster perchedon a dead limb only five feet above ground. Cautiouslyapproaching, I wasable to grab his tarsi. Laid gentlyon his back,he grippedmy hand with both feet, but did not breakthe skin. Once banded,he refusedto let go, and as I stroveto replacehim on his perchI happenedto feel his breast-bone,which wasfrightfully sharp, and realized that histameness and weakgrip camefrom starvation. Either he had been abandonedby his parentsbefore he had learnedto feed himself,or--more likely--they had been killed. I tied the bird to the handle-barsof my bicycleand rode with it to the zo61ogicalbuilding at Smith College. There he was fattened on mice: two dozen little mice at one meal made his crop bulgeridiculously. After a week,July 15th, I took the bird to the nearest woodsand releasedit. It merely hoppedaround, but its wingsseemed normal. Nine or ten hours later, a friend telephonedme to come and see a big hawkbeing pestered by Robins,and I beheldmy protege,at a goodly heightin a tree. Next morningthis friend telephonedagain that the hawk lind screamedand had appsxentlybeen answered by anotherhigh in the sky, andhad [iownup to join it. I shall,of course,be particularly interested to hear.(if I ever do) of this bird's fate. Birdsof prey make a romanticappeal to many people. We all deplore the undiscriminatingslaughter of them by gunners,farmers, and game- breeders.The pole-traphas been particularly assailed. But it hasoccurred to me that a humanepole-trap ought to be practicaland might be usedby banders.Why not make a springtrap, not with metal jaw.s that gripthe leg, 204] Note Bird-Banding with a captive owl for decoy,such traps might harmlesslylead to the band- ing of quite a few of theseinteresting and endangeredbirds.--S. A. ELIOT, JR., Smith College,Northampton, Massachusetts. Some Notes on the Hairy Woodpecker.--The questionhas comeup as to whetherthe msle or female Downy Woodpecker(Dryobates pubescerts medianks)selects the nesting-territory. This raisesthe samequestion as to the habit of the Hairy Woodpecker(Dryobates v. villosus)in this respect. Turning to my notesaccumulated since banding was begun at this station, I find two interestingcases, where the female I-Isiry took the initiative in this act. The first casehas to do with a femaIewhich was first noticedat our yard on February 14, 1931, and later trapped and banded as A379710. She thereafter made it a daily habit of coming to feed, either on doughnut or suet, severaltimes a day. The periodof her visits extendedthroughout the following spring and summer, but with longer intervals between visits during the summer and sometimeswith an absenceof a few days. By August her visits were again daily and continuedto be so until November 1st, after which she was not seen and may have mi•ated with others of the species,passing over at about this time. On April 15, 1931,a maleHairy wasseen about the stationwith A379710, and they weretogether more or lessthereafter. There wasno activemating display, and at no time was a second male seen to contest the male's suit. The femalesoon selected a spot on the north side of an apple tree trunk three and one half feet from the ground, and began digginga nest-cavity, working at it silently and methodically, mostly during the forenoonbut sometimesof an afternoon. This site is forty yards from our yard; and while the male never came to the yard to feed, the female often left work and came directly to my feeding station. The male rarely came near her whenshe was at work, and whenhe did so,he aIightedon the treesno cIoser than forty feet away. She usually met him there, and they •tew away together. I-Ie spent practically all oFhis time in the woodsand his winter territory to the south, and here the two went when together. Close to this apple tree the Hairy selected,stands a tall and large elm stub in which three pairsof Starlings(Sturnus vulgaris) were nesting. Before the Hairy nest-cavity was completed,the bird was inadvertently frightenedaway. Shethen went to a partly decayedelm one hundredand fifteen yards to the southeast,where a secondcavity was begun situated sometwenty-five feet from the ground,which but for a limb too tough to work throughmight have servedfor a nest. On May 14th she returned to hertion;apple and tree. in due The time following a set ofday fourthe eggs birds waswere deposited. seen inthe Aact pair of CoOiP• • ubiquitousStarlings, desiring to nest again, entered the I-Iairy's nest May 28th and destroyedthe eggsand drove the femaleaway.