Page:Condor21(2).djvu/16

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62 Vol. XXI BIRD NOTES OF A STORMY MAY IN COLORADO SPRINGS By EDWARD R. WARREN WITH ONE PHOTO HE MONTH of May, 1917, in Colorado Springs, was, apparently in com- mon with the rest of the country, an abnormally cold, stormy one. ' Many cloudy or partly cloudy days, with low temperatures and much rain and even snow, prevailed all through the month. Once the maximum temperature was aboye 80--81, on the 16th. On the 15th, 17th and 18th the maximums were 77, 76 and 76, respectively. On no other day did the thermometer go above 70. The lowest minimum was 22, the highest 51, the latter on the 18th. ! Fig. 17. SCENE IN MONUMENT VALLEY PARK, COLORADO SPRINGS, M?Y 5, 1917. LESSER SCAUP DUCKS IN FOREGROUND. I had not been devoting as much time as usual in April to bird work; but when, on the morning of May 5, I woke up and found some eight inches of heavy wet snow on the ground, I decided it was time to see what was going on among the birds. I knew this storm, coming at the migrating season, might cause suffering, and there was a possibility it might also make delay in the arrival of some of the species. About my house the most noticeable thing was the great number of Robins, these searching for worms wherever they might luckily find a bare spot. The snow was so saturated with water that it melted readily, and the plight of our red-breasted friends was thus not as bad as it might have been, though many of them evidently thought it bad enough, as