Page:Condor10(5).djvu/9

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Sept., 1908 BIRDS OF A VOYAGE ON SALTON SEA 191 just out of sympathy for the cormorants and herons, I suppose. Four-fifths of the gulls were plainly immature, and the rest may have been non-breeders, too. I saw no sign of their nesting anywhere on the sea. After collecting a few specimens and taking some pictures, we left the Island at three-thirty, and proceeded on our arduous way towards the mainland, which we reached at dark. We had to tie up to a bush several hundred yards off shore, because of the shallowness, and wade to shore with our effects. Richardson and I caught a train the next morning, and returned to Mecca, leaving Donham to take care of his boat. In the preceding account I have mentioned only the water birds met with on Salton Sea. The land birds found in the vicinity of Mecca will receive attention in another paper. ?5'crkeley, Cahfornia. A FEW SUMMER BIRDS OF LAKE CHELAN, WASHINGTON By J. H. BOWLES AKE Chelan is situated in the north central part of the State of .Washington, and extends east and west almost entirely across the northern end of Chelan County, At the western end of the lake is its main feeder, the Stehekin River, which flows directly out of the Cascade Mountains. At the eastern end is its outlet, the Chelan River, which flows thru a deep gorge into the Columbia River. As the Chelau River is only four miles in length, the lake may be said to connect the Cascade Mountains with the sandy wastes of the Columbia. Consequently a great variety of country is encountered, as the lake is fifty-two miles in length and four or five miles in width. At the eastern end one finds almost the typical sage brush desert region, altho its altitude of 1500 feet has sprinkled it with what are commonly called bull pines (lr?inus./effreyi). At the western end the foothills of the mountains are encountered, and consequently an entire change of physical sur- roundings. Sand and sage brush have long since been left behind, and instead of scattered pines we .find walls of rock and forests of cedar, pine, hemlock and cottonwood. Such a country as is above described must necessarily attract a wide variety of bird lif?e, and this is indeed the case to a really astonishing degree. At times I have almost imagine?l that a part of my old New England hunting grounds must have suddenly extended over the 3000 miles that intervene; for I have sat listening to the well-remembered songs and call-notes of Red-eyed Vireos, Catbirds, King- birds, Olive-backed Thrushes and Redstarts, all announcing their presence at the same time. Intermingled, and almost in discord, so out of place did they seem, would be heard the songs of the Louisiana Tanager and Bullock Oriole, as well as many other notes of our typical far western bird life. I shall not attempt to give a full list of the birds of the region, merely men- tioning such as seem to me to be of unusual interest for one reason or another, more particularly the typical forms common to the eastern United States. The dates upon which these notes were takeu cover the time from June 10 to the 23rd, of the present year (1908), at which period it seems beyond any reasonable doubt that all of the birds noted were breeding.