For Teachers and Students
Birds and Seasons
FIFTH SERIES
AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER BIRD-LIFE NEAR BOSTON
By Ralph Hoffmann
WHILE there is undoubtedly a steady diminution in our bird -life during August, it is extremely difficult to name the exact date when the bulk of any one species departs. Many birds are molting, and are consequently silent and retiring. The Yellow Warbler, however, sings constantly through July and early August; when, therefore, we cease to hear his song, we assume that he and his tribe have gone. Individual Yellow Warblers may be observed late in September, but these are almost certainly migrants from farther north. In September again little bands of Chimney Swifts may sometimes be observed nearly to the end of the month, but our own birds have probably left us long before. The chief interest in August bird -study lies in studying the plumages of the young birds, and in learning to recognize the adult males in their autumn dress. There is also a certain amount of wandering going on, which may bring to us an early northern migrant before the regular September movement begins. Along the shore there is a regular migration in August, and there Sandpipers, Plover and the various sea birds offer a fascinating but difficult field for study.
September comes after August, somewhat as the spring does after mid-winter. No other month except May offers so great a variety of birds. But the birds sing little, are often much less conspicuously marked, and seem more restless than in spring, so that the study of the autumn migrants keeps one even more alert and watchful than the more stirring mornings of May. Since the very first returning migrant in the fall is not awaited so anxiously as in the spring, I have adopted a different system in recording their arrival. I have given two dates, but the second is the time when the last of the species leaves us for the winter, while the first is the approximate date when the first may be looked for. When no second date is given, the species remains all winter.
BIRDS OF THE SEASON
For permanent residents, see Bird-Lore, Dec., 1900, p. 183.
Departures of Summer Residents in August and September.—August 18, Yellow Warbler, Purple Martin; August 31, Cliff Swallow, Bank Swallow, Red-winged
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