Los Angeles Audubon Society

The two hap-isontal lin&e are equal.

VOLUME 37 1970-71 NUMBER 9 MAY

JUDGEMENT OF SIZEJ udging the size of birds in the field

with the naked eye can be very diffi-cult, very much more so through bin-oculars. Yet size is an important

discriminant as , for example, between theUnalaska and Song Sparrow, the Northwesternor Fish and Common Crow, the King andClapper Rail; and in quick identification ofDovekies, Baz or bills and the various auks andmurrelets at Sea.

Estimation of size, distance, and speedis based on a life-time of education withstandard objects through the body's physio-logical experiences with the muscular activityof the eyes, together with the coordinationexercised from babyhood of picking up, meet-ing, avoiding, aiming, and hitting of familiarobjects. More specifically, it is impossible to judge 3ize of an object lying more than 500 feet awayunless there is an actual extraneous reference body of known size at about the same distance; orunless the range is known. In this event, the mind establishes a virtual reference body, by sayingto itself in effect, "a foot at that distance would subtend such-and-such an angle {i.e. , have an imageof a previously experienced size On the retina)". For distances less than 5 00 feet, range, and hencethe virtual reference object, can be established by physiological aids, the muscular effort of con-verging the two eyes in binocular vision, and of contracting the eye lens to focus (accommodation),possibly combined with motion of the head. A stronger claim can be made in the case of lookingthrough binoculars. Here, actual familiar reference objects of known size must be in the field ofview at the same distance. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Tl • f here are hundreds of documented exam-

he basis of this contention is manifold. _ | _ P7les o f this statement in their files of

Since ancient t imes, it has been ob- - * • c l a i m s ^ c h as ''objects 50 feet long, 5served that the Moon looks larger (per- ^ f a ^ y travelling at 500 irnles an hour On

the basis of simultaneous observation of pilotsseveral hundred miles apart such an observationwould run out to be a meteor trail 1 mile long,500 miles away, travelling at 50,000 miles anhour. The fundamentals of judging size, and theappreciation that it is a learning process, wasnever more evident than in training astronautsfor landing on the Moon, Craters of the Mooncome in a LI sizes, from hundreds of miles across'to a few millimeters. On being shown a photo-graph of the surface one cannot say that the scaleis—whether the frame is a thousand miles across

he basis of this contention is manifold.Since ancient times, it has been ob-served that the Moon looks larger (per-

haps 2-1/2 times) on the horizon than overhead,although in fact it subtends precisely the sameangle to the eye. There is a long record of ri-diculous estimates of size and speed of flight ofhummingbirds and ducks that have never with-stood the test of time or sober measurements.In recent years, the United States Air Force hashad to spend millions of dollars investigatingreports of "unidentified flying objects" (UFO's).This fruitless effort has merely substantiated thescientific fact that the human sensory system hasabsolutely no way of estimating simultaneouslyboth size and distance of an isolated object morethan 500 feet away.

article was written at the request of aof reaJers wlio are interested in the probltan

of judging the size of toiu3s in the field.

or a few feet—at least not without detailed studyof features other than craters. It turned out thatin actual fact the astronauts landed quite smoothly,partly due to automatic radar and wire probes,but largely due to binocular vision and eye muscleaccommodation which became effective in the finalclose approach. Nevertheless, the commander ofApollo 14, Alan B. Shepard, said:

With the horizon much nation in colors, bnepardnearer than it is on earth,and with no trees or famJ-llar features to help Judgedistance, plus a. lack of va-

, psaid, finding one's wayabout on the moon's sur-face is like trying to navi*gate on the trackless Sahara Desert

Continued overleaf

Similarly, judging the size of birds at seais very difficult, because waves come inall sizes, and there is no scaled refer-ence. One can learn to estimate the day's

wave size by use of binocular inspection of thoseclose by, and transfer this estimate to remotedistances, but not even the most experiencedpelagic birder could discriminate between aSlender-billed and Sooty Shearwater on size alone.

The fkpee birds are the same.

t^m m a^^hen the object is less than 500% M\ m feet away, its size can be judged\ g %^relatively accurately. At theseyg Tm distances the muscles of the eye lens

have to contract to bring objects into focus,and a lifetime of these physiological experi-ences are recalled in making judgments. Evenpeople with monocular vision (those with oneeye, or who are wall-eyed or cross-eyed) canjudge distance and size by this mechanism.

Stereoscopic vision, however, is the mosteffective method of estimating size. Be-cause of their separation horizontally inspace, the two eyes see slightly different

aspects of the object being viewed. The acuityof the eyes is such that this difference can alsobe detected out to 500 feet. The superpos.Honof the different views in the brain results ii. theappreciation of depth and three dimensionalitywhich in turn give the direct experience of size,experiences which are accumulated in memoryand used for future reference when judging di-mensions of objects. In addition, each eyeattempts to see the object in focus and on axis.

When they have accomplished this, the musculartension and degree of cross-eyed-ness is appre-ciated and related to previous experience. Withtraining, one can judge distance to within a fewfeet out to a range of 500 feet. When this hasbeen done (subconsciously) one's memory ofobjects of known size—such as a foot — allowsone to make a judgment of size at the distancein question.

large distances, then, some referencescale, or estimate of range, must beestablished in order to judge the size

f an unfamiliar object; and at closerdistances physiological clues recall previousexperiences as a reference. In either casethese techniques for observation with the nakedeye require a great deal of skill, learned sincechildhood, and not consciously appreciated.Even the most experienced birder has beenviewing the outside world through binoculars ortelescope a tiny fraction of his life, so thejudgment of size entails an entirely new learn-ing process, in building up a backlog of physio-logical experiences. The magnifying power ofbinoculars presents to the eyes of a viewer anentirely different "space" from the Euclideanspace he is accustomed to. The stereoscopicamplification of most binoculars accentuatesthe differences. For example, look at a rec-tangular building carefully through binoculars —it looks as if the architect had never seen aright angle !

* stimates of size can with practice bemade through a telescope or binocu-

l a r s . First the observer has to esti-mate the distance of the bird fiom

prior sighting with the naked eye. The size onthe retina will then be correlated with memoriesof previously studied1 birds of known and normalsize, i.e. , with some recalled virtual reference.Atmospheric conditions, such as heatwaves, canhowever give very great magnifying effects whichare not corrected for when viewing through thenarrow field of view of binoculars.

Tl he reference object can be artificial.' A graticle is a piece of flat glass onwhich a scale has been engraved. It canbe mounted in the optical train of a

telescope or binoculars so that the scale is infocus and can be seen while viewing a distanceobject. That is, the observer can measure di-rectly the size of the object as so many divisionsof the scale on the graticle. The trick now is tocalibrate the scale in terms of conventional dis-tance—a division corresponds to so many inches.If the range is known, this is simple arithmetic —but the range is only known from reading thescale of the focus setting. One can go to thetrouble of calibrating one's telescope or binocu-lars for this purpose—but this procedure is verycumbersome and rarely resorted to.

n ideal scheme would be to have an effec-tive graticle on which there are two fidu-cial marks corresponding to some gen-

^^k vSta erally useful reference distance — say6 inches; and to have these marks move with thefocussing knob so that they are always separated,at the equivalent of six inches at the object planeat which the instrument is focussed,

ConaUtded an page nine

SOME BIRDS OF KASHMIRBy Joel and Bertha Massie

The part of Kashmir that we travelled.through is a land of nomads who graze theirhuge herds of sheep along with some goats,cattle and yaks. The land with all the herdsof sheep for the many many years is verybadly overgrazed. There was just one daywhen we traveled in what we called "TheValley of the Flowers" where this type ofevidence was absent. This day we met not asingle native pack train and the only animalswere a few horses. The side of the valley wewalked on was a carpet of flowers —monkshood,larkspur, senecio and numerous other com-posites including One similar to our "old manof the mountain, " several striking mints,edelweiss as well as a close relative of ourpearly everlasing, some beautiful lousewortsand on and on.

The trails left much to be desired—forthe most part they were sheep paths and youcould take your choice of any one of a dozen ofthem. Signs were non-existent. According tothe Indian topographical maps we had three13,. 500-foot passes plus one of a mere 13, 000feet. The day that we Were to go over the firstof the high passes it was raining. The menwith the pack animals absolutely refused tostart out that rainy day. When we reachedthe pass the next day and started down, werecognized the wisdom of their decision. Thetrail was so steep and TOcky that they led theponies one at a time and at times even placedthe foot of the animal on a solid spot.

This was a mountain trek with no em-phasis on natural history, Ray Jewell, theleader was interested in ornithology as weieseveral of the others who made a point ofwalking with us in order to have birds andflowers identified. Fortunately I had pur-chased "Breeding Birds of Kashmir" by Batesand Lowther sometime before we left the statesand I also carried Salim AH's 'Indian HillBirds. '"

Much of the time we were at elevations ofeleven and twelve thousand feet where therewere few trees if any. As you know, the num-ber of species of birds found in the high eleva-tions is limited. The spectacular views of theLammergeyers soaring over us with greatfrequency is something we will never forget.Griffon and Egyptian Vultures and a group ofseven Golden Eagles in one spot were amongthe other birds of prey. In the rocky terrainabove timberline the everyday Rock Dove isreplaced by the Snow Pigeon, a bird of similarhabits but more striking in appearance becauseof large white patches contrasting with the over-all gray and black coloration.

Those of us who have spent time in theAlps, particularly in the Jungfraujoch areaare very familiar with the Yellow-billed Chough.We saw very few of these but great numbers ofits close relative the Red-billed Chough, an allblack bird with a rather thin downcurved brightred bill. Since it is somewhat crowlike in ap-pearance, one expects a rather raucous callinstead of their very thin talk which so readilyidentifies them even when they are out of sighton the ground.

One of the loveliest of the small birds wasthe White-capped Redstart (no relative of ours],a denizen of the rushing mountain streams evenat the high elevations. His less colorful cousin,the Plumbeous Redstart, along with anotherstream lover, the Whistling Thrush, also wereplentiful. The finch family was represented bythe Himalayan Goldfinch, the Himalayan Green-finch (much more beautiful than the EuropeanGreenfinch), Stoliczka'a Mountain-finch (defi-nitely a high-mountain bird), the Red-browedFinch and Hodgson's Rosefinch. Several of theWagtails were found with, the Yellow-headedmoderately abundant on the rocky slopes. (Ieven managed a fairly good picture of one, )

Continued on page nine

Below are a few of the ENVIRONMENTAL BILLS in the CALIFORNIA STATE LEGISLATURE.I cannot overemphasize the importance of environmental legislation and letters from concernedcitizens do bring positive results 1 It is imperative that you express your opinions now, before abill has a chance to die in committee. Names of your own assemblyman and senator, and chairmanand members of the committee to which the bill ha3 been referred, can be obtained from AudubonHouse. (AB=Assembly Bill, SB=Senate Bill, ACA=Assembly Constitutional Amendment)

AB 105o-Establish.es an independent, full-timestate environmental quality board (k eight region-al boards charged with the responsibility &authority for comprehensive state land use plan-ning & management, & comprehensive controlof air, water, thermal, solid waste, pesticide,radiation, and noise pollution. Would have vetopower over any proposed state or local projectthat could substantially damage environment.Statewide ecological master plan to be developedby 1975. Members of boards must be expert inenvironmental management. Replaces StateOffice of Planning 8* Resources Boards. Intro-duced by Assemblyman Z'berg, referred toAssembly Natural Resources & Conservation -

ACA 26-Would declare that conservation & pro-tection of natural resources fc scenic beauty arerights of the people. Z'berg, to Assembly Com-mittee on Constitutional Amendments.

AB 985-Would give attorney general and privateecology groups legal standing £0 bring classactions to stop pollution.. Z'berg, to AssemblyJudiciary Committee.

AB 1471-Would create California Coastal ZoneConservation Commission to develop coastlinepreservation plan, allocate $600, 000 for oper-ation. Coastal zone is distinct & valuablenatural resource, permanent projection of para-mount concern, policy to preserve, protect, &restore. Introduced by Assemblyman Sieroty,to Assembly Planning & Land Use Committee.

SB 270, 1. Z-Would reclassify Point Mugu StateRecreation Area as state park, require publichearing of State Parks and Recreation Com-mission on reclassifying of parks and providingfor legislative review of park funding, wouldrevise categories for classifying parks andrecreation areas within the state parks system.Introduced by Senator Beilenson, referred toSenate Natural Resources fe Wildlife Committee;

AB 1377-81-Would require counties to adoptscenic highway plans and coordinate with state;would ban billboards from scenic highways andrequire consideration of bicycle paths in newstate scenic highways, Introduced by Assembly-man Arnett, reierred to Com. on Transportation.

AB 660-Deletes the mountain lion from the gamemammal list, makes it illegal to take, injure,possess, transport, impart, or sell the moun-tain lion with certain exceptions, authorizesthe Dept. of Fish Ik Gami to take ox have takenany depredating mountain lion. Also requireslive capture if possible & economically feasible,Introduced by Assemblyman Dunlap, passedAssembly Natural Resources and ConservationCommittee, refered to Assembly Ways &. Means.

SB 722-TQ give California's rare Tule Elk fullprotection of the law up to the number 2000,Introduced by Senator Behr, referred to SenateCommittee on Natural Resources fk Wildlife,

SB 297-Would create a state game refuge at theFarallon Islands to prohibit taking of birds ormammals, Introduced by Senator Marks, refer-red to Natural Resources fe Wildlife Committee.

AB 11-Bars officers & employees of any agencydischarging wastes in water from membershipon water quality control boards. Assemblyma/iRobert!, referred to Assembly Gov't OperationsAB 1258-Would ban sale of phosphate detergents.Assemblyman LaCoste, referred to AssemblyEnvironmental Quality Committee.

AB 552-Wcmld make it misdemeanor to use,possess or sell DDT without approval of direc-tor of agriculture, allows fines up to $6, 000 aday for violations. Introduced by AssemblymanRyan, referred to Assembly Env. Quality Com.

AB 2168-Would order all state agencies to returnwaste paper for recycling. Vasconcellos.

Mope on page sei)&n

Los Angeles Auduhon Society CalendarHEADQUARTERS, LIBRARY AND NATURE MUSEUM LOCATED AT AUOUBON HOUSEPLUMMER PARK, 7377 SANTA MONICA BLVD., LOS ANGELES 90046 876-0202

Mrs. Abigail King, Executive Secretary700 Halllday AvenueLos Ahgsles, California 90049

April 24 SATURDAY - FIELD TRIP - Morongo Valley. Meet between 7LOO and B:00 a.m. in Covington Par*,Morongo Valley. Take In t e r s t a t e 10 east to the Twenty Nine Palms Highway (2.5 miles eastof Whitewater). Go north approximately ID miles. Excellent for migrating b i rds . This isplanned as a one-day t r i p , however many may wish to stay over t o bird in nearby Joshua TreeNational Monument or in the Saltern Sea area on Sunday. Camping f a c i l i t i e s are available inthe Monument. Dry camp, br ing your own water. Leader: George Venatta, days 547-2487

eves. 378-B941

Hay 1 SATURDAY - FIELD TRIP - Morongo Valley. Meet between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. in Covington Park,Marongo Valley. See April 24 instructions for route. As this i s one of our most popularfield t r i p s , we schedule i t twice each spring on successive weekends.

Leader: Jim Huffman 515-1224

May 6 THURSDAY - EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING, 8:00 p.m.

May 11 TUESDAY EVENING MEETING - Pluimter Park, 9:00 p.m. Program: Mr. John Borneman, NationalAudubon Society Condor Natura l is t , wi l l present an i l l u s t r a t ed l ec tu re , 1lThe Seychelles,1

about h is recent t r i p there .

May 23 SUNDAY - FIELD TRIP - Mt. Finos. Meet a t 3:00 a.m. a t Fraz ie r Park turnoff by re s t au ran ta t She l l S t a t i on . The Fraz ie r Park turnoff i s approximately 2 miles beyond Gormen on High-way 99. This i s a good t r i p for montane species sucb as Red Crossb i l l s , Cassin 's Finch,Calliope Hummers and, poss ib ly , Condors. Call Bob Elackstooe for d e t a i l s - 277-0521.

June 3 THURSDAY - EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING, 8:00 p.m.

June 8 TUESDAY - EVENING MEETING - "What Bird Is That? " - A novel p r o g r a m by ArnoldSmall which features pictures of North American birds used in an identification game.Come and see how many you know, or don't know.

June 12 SATURDAY - FIELD TRIF - Thorn Meadow. This is planned tentatively as a camping trip. Con-sult June "Western Tanager" for details.

ANIMAL. ROAD KIL.1,3

A recent 16-month study in Montgomery,Maryland, collected the facts about the kill ofanimals on the roads. There is an average of2 animals killed per mile of road per month.Of these a quarter were birds4 This does notcount carcasses which were lodged in automo-biles or wounded which moved off.

With 160, 000 miles of roads in the Stateof California the harvest of death is 4 millionbirds per year. At least a hundred million birdsare killed by automobiles per year throughout thenation.

Many thanks to you volunteers who haveso generously donated your time in furth ringthe cause! I am most appreciative of yourletter writing, booth sitting, co lating, mailing,

cal l ing, etc. l<ATHRYri BROOKS

LOS ANGELES AUDUBON SOCIETY

Official Publication of theLOS ANGELAS AUDUBON SOCIETY7377 Santa Monica BoulevardLOB Angeles, Calif. 90046

GILBERT W. KINGDonald AdamsEhumway SuffelKathryn BrooksHanna StadlerHans Hjorth

Subscription to The Western Tanager $3.50 perannum. The Western Tanager is mailed two orthree days before the first af the month, fourthclass. First-class mailing, $1.00 extra.

EDITORAssistant EditorField NotesConservationTypingMailing Slipervision.

andubnn activitiesFIELD TRIP - March 13 - Tujunga Wash. Af-

ter a night of rain the day began with heavyovercast, then became clear and pleasant by mid-morning only to turn to a strong, cold wind be-fore noon. Birding was rather slow. We did seethe CACTUS WREN and, although there were ANNA'Sand RUFOUS HUMMIHGBIRBS, no COSTA'S could befound. For those who braved the afternoon windsperhaps most interesting was the opportunity toobserve closely four swallows in the a i r at thesame time: VIOLET-GREEH, TREE, ROUGH-WINGED* andCLIFF SWALLOWS, and see at close range the dif-ferences in colors of the backs and wings- Atota l of 39 species was seen, not including Gullswhich were on the lake and we did not take timeto identify. Freeman Tatum, leader.

March 27 >i. Conference of all the SouthernCalifornia Chapters of the National Audubon Soc-iety was held at the headquarters of the newly-formed El Durado Audubon Society, under theauspices of Paul Howard, Western Regional Dir-ector o£ the National Audubon Society, and chair-manship of Charles Collins of the host society.Many mutual problems were discussed in an a l l -day session, and it is to be hoped that coopera-tion between the Southern California Societieswill help to solve them. These meetings will beheld quarterly, the next one being at the PomonaSociety headquarters .

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY BIRDERSTRIP, March 27-28

Membership in the American Chemical So-ciety is 100, 000, Of whom 35 are ardent b i rdersand arrange a field tr ip before their NationalMeetings. This spring the Los Angeles AudubonSociety had the honor of arranging the tr ip whichwas led by Harold Baxter and Gil King. Eighteenmembers of the ACS had two good days of seeingthe local birds of late March, at Newport Beachand at the Angeles Crest . Everyone added totheir year ' s l is t , and quite a few added newbirds to their life list—the most difficult beingthe Mountain Quail at Charlton Fla ts .

PELAGIC TRIP OUT OF SAN DIEGO, April 9.The California Field Ornithologists werehosts to the Cooper Ornithological Unionin arranging a pelagic trip at the end of

the annual meeting in San Diego.r Owing to high winds the "Seaforth"

^ went first to the Coronado Islands whereXantus' Murrelets, Black and AmericanOystercatchers were seen. With calmweather the vessel proceeded further off-

\ shore, but except for Pomarine Jaegersand a few Shearwaters few birds were seen. ARhinoceros Auklet in full plumage was seen neartne vessel, in calm water.

NEW FIELD TRIP—Stehly Ranch, March 28.Approximately fifty people gathered at the gateof the Stehly Ranch on Sunday morning; half tookthe "high road" with Trudy Siptroth, while theother half took the "low road" with Fern Zimmer-man and Lois , and after each had coveredits respective area, the groups changed places,A respectable list of 56 species of birds was re-corded, though nothing spectacular was seen.Both groups returned to the ranch house to havelunch, to meet Mr. and Mrs. Stehly and to hearMr. Leonard Shelton, a member of the board ofNational Audubon Society, speak of the interestof the Society in acquiring Mr. Stehly's ranchfor a nature center.

All agreed that the Stehly Ranch is a beau-tiful place and would be neatly ideal for the So-ciety's purpose. Its 420 acres of hills and can-yons have been left by the owners in their naturalstate and with many fine native oaks and walnutsand sycamores. It is certainly to be hoped thatthis beautiful property can somehow be savedfrom the real-estate developers so that othersin the future can enjoy it as we did.

We owe thanks to Trudy Siptroth for ar -ranging thia visit for us and for the excellent way

d ^ h

Appeal fromthe President

It is gratifying to report that the responseto the appeal by the President in the Marchissue of The Western Tanager has resulted inan appreciable number of donations, for whichthe Society gives its thanks. In addition a num-ber of volunteers have helped in the duties ofthe Society as a result of the appeal.

However, in order to keep up the servicesto the members still more help in the form ofcontributions and volunteers is mandatory.Let every one respond.

JAMES FISHER

Our readers will be very sadto hear of the death of James Fisher,in a car accident. His books arewell-known, especially the one withRoger Peterson "The World of Birds."He is also remembered by manybirders in the United States for hisaccount of the fabulous tour fromMkine to the State of Washingtonwith Roger Peterson in I960, seeingmoat of the North American birdson the one trip.

He waa a great lecturer andbroadcaster as well and contributedgreatly to the general awareness ofconservation. He made permanentcontributions to ornithology.

Tto perpetuate the work of the Los AngelesAudubcn Society, rananber i t in your wi l l .

AB 1981 -Would prohibit a governmental bodyor public utility from Taking park land for non-park purposes without replacing it. Sieroty

SB 1 IB-Prohibits retail sale of off-premisebeverage containers unless they are refundablefor 5 cents each or are biodegradable. Makesviolation a misdemeanor punishable only byfine up to $500. Introduced by Senator Nejedly,amended, referred to Senate Health & Welfare.

URGE "YES" ON H. R. 58Z1

We wish to join the Society for the Preser-vation of Birds of Prey in their campaign tourge passing of H. R. 5821, introduced by Rep.John D. DingeL, This bill would supplementcurrent federal laws that protect the bald andgolden eagles, placing all hawks and owls inthe same protective class. Although predatorcontrol methods aimed at hawks and owls wouldbe illegal under this bill, control would beallowed by special permit from state resourceagencies when in concurrence with the Secretaryof the Interior. All holders of valid falconryLicenses would be allowed to retain their birds,but no harvesting of raptors from the wild -wouldbe permitted after passing of the bill and therewould be no specific provision for the practiceof falconry. Also prohibited would be the trans-fer and sale of native raptors. With few captiveraptors living in twenty or thirty years, thelegal possession of hawks and owls by privateowner ship would become non-existent.

Public support of this bill is imperativenow. Write Congressman Dingel for a copy ofthe bill if you wish to read it in detail. To lendsupport, let your own senators and representa-tive know how you feeL, Donate time and moneyto handle cost and distribution of fliers concern-ing this very important bill,

DDT SUSPENSION WI THHEL.D FOR ANOTHERYEAR . "EPA Administrator Ruckelshaus hasdecided not to suspend the use of DDT, MIrex,dieldrin, aldrin, and the herbicide 2,4, 5-Tuntil he can review the results of a year's studywhich he has ordered to begin immediately onthe "safety11 of these poisons, Mr. Ruckelshausis a knowledgeable conservationist who has shownthat he fully understands the dangers of thesepoisons and the damage they can cause. He isunder heavy and conflicting pressures.

LAKE MA THEWS: Bird of Prey Natural Area

Lake Mathews Reservoir in RiversideCounty near Corona might be established as a"Bird of Prey Natural Area" if enough supportiveletters are sent to officials currently reviewingthe idea. The lake i s one of the few remainingclosed reservoirs. Nearly 2,800 acres of unpol-luted water is home to bass and other fish andmake it an ideal protective area for water birdsand bald eagles. Threats of opening LakeMathews for recreational purposes have contin-ued for many years, but water district officialsare adamantly against the plan- Most residentsin the area also feeL the reservoir should remainclosed-

Richard Hilton, President of the Society forthe Preservation of Birds of Prey, introducedthe plan to Supervisor William Jones of RiversideJoseph Jensen, Southern California Water Dis-trict, and to Robert Mallette of the Departmentof Fish, and Game. Jones said he would carefullyconsider the matter and Mallette said he wouldassign a field supervisor to investigate the pro-posal and the possibility that bald eagles nestinside the reservoir. (Richard Hilton has studiedthe raptor populations at the lake during the lastthree years and claims that bald eagles do nestinside Lake Mathews.) The area surroundingthe lake is favorite terrain for ferruginous hawks,red-tail hawks, screech owls, marsh hawks,Sparrow hawks, prairie falcons, and goldeneagles. Hilton asks that L.A.A.S. memberssend letters supporting the "Lake MathewsBirds of Prey Natural Area" to:

Robert D. MalletteAssociate Wildlife-Manager BiologistDepartment of Fish aad Game141b Ninth StreetSacramento, Ca 95814

Joseph Jensen, ChairmanBoard of DirectorsMetropolitan Water DistrictBox 54153Los Angeles, Ca 90054

William E. JonesSupervisor First DistrictCourt House, Room 1034050 Main Street Riverside, Ca 92501

l l 0 T 1 C E: ELECTION OF OFFICERS FOR THE

YEAR 1971-1372 WILL BE HELD AT THE HAY

EVENING ilEETING AT PuJmER PARK.

N O T I C E

THE i t tTIdt tL AJIXJBQI CQWEfllUrl WILL BE

HELD IN MILWAUKEE, MAY 20 THROUGH !1AY 24, 1971,

FIELD TRIPS TO THE WISCONSIN DELLS AND HORICON

:1ARSH ARE PLANNED FOR MAY 21 AND TIAY 24.

AUSTRALIANBIRDING TOUR

AWKXJNCING A THREE-WEEK ESCORTED B I R D I N G TOUR OF

tosTRALlA DEPARTING ito/EMBER 6 , 1371. SPONSOREDBY THE bs ANGELES AUDUBOM SOCIETY,

PURPOSE OF TRIP TO SEE AND IDENTIFY MAXIHLH

NLHBER OF BIRD SPECIES.

SEE AUSTRALIAN PARROTS, HCNEYEATERS, BOWER BIRDS*

LYREBIRDS, BIRDS OF PARADISE, WINTERING ASIATIC

SHORE BIRDS, PENGUINS, EMUS, CASSOWARIES, KANGAROOS

DUCK-SILLED PLATPUS, I&ALA BEARS, FLYING FOXES,

VISIT THE LARGE CITIES. THE GREAT CARRIER REEF

AND OTHffi NATURE AREAS,

TOP AUSTRALIAN BIRDERS TO AssrsT IN FINDING AND

IDENTIFYING BIRDS,

STOP-OVER PRIVILEGES IN OTHER SOUTH PACIFIC AREAS

FOLLOWING TOUR,

Reservations token NOW!FOR RESERVATIONS OR FURTHER INFORMATION CALL THE

Los ANGELES ALDUBON TOUR LEADERS:

JIM fiiFFtwi, 545-1224 OLSA CLARKE, 240-5637

Audubon House

Department

Owing to the cutback in staff, we have found itnecessary to give up our gift items and are nolonger taiing orders for Shaklee Products. Forthe present the sales department will be limitedto books, records and small items such as sta-tionery.

We have severa l new books on the birdsOf AUSTRALIA: on FLYCATCHERS, WARBLERSand WADERS among others . If you arethinking of joining the AustralianTour in the f a l l you will want these.For in depth study we now have a veryoutstanding book on biology: ORNITHOLOGYby PETTINGILL.

By popular request we now have severaldifferent types of bird feeders avail-able. These are made to order by twoof our members and samples are on viewat Audubon House.

PART-TIME CURATOR?

Dr. John William Hardy of the Moore Lab-oratory of Zoology at Occidental College wouldlike to make known that he is in need of regularpart-time curatorial assistance. He is lookingfor some housewife, or retired (or semi-retired)adult, interested in and at least somewhat know-ledgeable about birds who could work for periodsof 3 hours two days a week (or some such mutu-ally agreed upon system) at the college. Thework would pay absolutely awful wagea (meniallevel or nothing) but for someone looking for in-teresting bird-oriented passtime that can be tru-ly educational the job could be stimulating. Itwould involve for the most part work with speci-mens, including rearrangement of skins in thecases, cataloguing and identifying skins, skele-tons, and alcoholically preserved specimens, andpreparation, of skeletal specimens [from begin-ning to end--that is removing feathers and flesh,and finally cleaning bones). This work would bedone under direct and indirect supervision of Dr.Hardy and in cooperation with some part-timestudent assistants- The work, if the workerproved capable, could also include some cura-torial work with the bird-sound library, includ-ing cataloguing and labelling of the types. Aninterest in birds, ability to print and type (huntand peck o. k. ) clearly, time to work 3 hr. stre-tches on a regular basis, and of course transpor-tation conveniences to the college are necessary.

You can call Dr. Hardy or his secretaryat the Moore Laboratory Monday through Friday(preferably not Friday) from 9:00 to 4:30 to getfurther information and perhaps arrange an inter-view and visit to the laboratory.

3

Continued...Both the White-breasted and Brown Dipperswere comparitively in proper habitats. WillowWarblers are so difficult to identify, but I feelcertain that we did have Tickell's. (This igthe only one found in the high elevations abovetim.be rline in Kashmir during the breedingeeason. }

The Cinnamon Tree Sparrow which wasvery common in some areas brought us back toSt. Louis mentally in that it reminded us of theEuropean Tree Sparrow- There, of course,were numerous other birds but I haven't hadtime to complete my total trip list which wasgreatly increased by the birds we saw in thelowlands at Delhi and at Agra where we visitedthe Taj and Fatehpur Sikri.

from SAUDI ARABIAA week ago we had four house guests from

Bahrain to share the big bird-watching weekendwith us. A group of 12 came and about 36 of usspent two days watching the birds in variousplaces. We saw some 60 species, which ispretty good. We really have quite a variety ofplaces, for we have lovely gardens (our guestsaid he had not seen anything as lovely since heleft Britain), very extensive beach areas alongthe Arabian Gulf, including some date gardensat the shore, and then we have the inland baysand desert. The Blue Rock Thrush, the RockThrush and. the Woodchat Shrike, are still mythree favorites of those we saw along with theHoopoe, and all but the Blue Hock Thrush wesee in our housing compound. There are manymore birds to come yet, and most of the duckshave already gone. We spent quite a bit of timetrying unsuccessfully to get a good look at a hugeflock of flamingoes off shore. How about joiningu s ' From a letter to Dick Stephenson from hisGistgr, Dorothy Rogers, who lives in Dhahran,Saudi Arabia, dated March_26i__197L.

600 «®PCONGRATULATIONS to Los Angeles

Audubon Society members Jay Sheppard, FrankBecherer, and Harold Baxter on seeing their600rth bird. Earle K. Greene reports that theyhave been accepted as members of the famous

Club. "

FOUND NOT .EXTINCT:An Ivory-billed wood-pecker of tbe type seento Saiitee Swamp, S. C

MASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON NEWSLETTER

IVORYBfLL HEADQUARTERSThe Big Thicket country of East Texas

apparently affords the ivory-billed wood-pecker — North America's largest wood-pecker and probably its most endangeredbird - a slight toehold on life

Over the years there have been variousproposals that might have saved this bio-logical ly-rich woodland as a nationalpark None aver reached reality. In fact,none ewer really got off the ground,

While conservationists have dallied theEasl Texas lumbermen have been busy.The Big Thicket has dwindled from 3'/imillion acres down to 300,000 acres,Now this final remnant faces destruction,first as a logging area and then as asummer home complex for Houston resi-dents thirty-five miles away.

In 1967, John V. Dennis of Virginia,once an ornithologist for the Massa-chusetts Audubon Society, found a smallpopulation of ivorybills living along theNeches River valley in The Big Thicket.Before Dennis' discovery, the iuorybiltwas considered extinct — ironically be-cause people who value the woodpeckeras a relic of another age had failed toacquire land where the woodpecker wasknown to exist.

t One of the birds' most famous pre-World War II haunts, a majestic, matureforest in Louisiana, now has been loggedand converted into a soybean plantation.

The ivorybill is larger than a crow,with shiny black-and-white plumage, scar-let crest and a long ivory bill. It can liveonly in mature woods because it eatsinsects found on trees which have beendead several years _ ^

Size of BirdsContinued feom page two

U1 ntil such a device is available, thebirder has to make a very consciouseffort to establish a virtual referencescale in the field of view —essentially

to ask himself how wide would a sbc-inch rulerlook as he focusses on a bird.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BIRDSContinued from back page

picnic with so many common birds starting to nest.For those wanting to see the rarities, visits toMoiongo Valley, Furnace Creek, and Deep Springsmight be worthwhile at the very end of May. Butfor now, go out and enjoy the spring migration atits peak.

'•'hii? J-

The two ae^nente are the earns size.

Jay Sheppard'-1

m Birdsis upon us and with this month we see some of the highest bird, and birding,

activity each year. It is possible in early May to record 200 species from mid-night to midnight, if one carefully lays his plans. Perhaps he could start in the

mountains at midnight for owls and then proceed to the Salton Sea in the early morn-ing hours for the desert birds. He could then drive back to the coast through the mountains andcoastal mountains. By late afternoon he could finish the "day" by seeing the waterbirds which weremissed at the Salton Sea. However, to do this "feat of birds mans hip" the party could not waste time"watching" any bird; instead, they must rely on each other and their own eyes and EARS. Vocalrecognition certainly speeds things up—who wants to spend precious moments "seeing" a Wren-tit,when they are easily heard?

If all goes well, some of our active bird banders will be ''madly" banding migrants to under-stand better this phenomenon in the West. One banding station I am most interested in seeing workis at Morongo Valley. Last May during the first nine days nearly 1200 birds were banded. (SeeG, N. "Peppy" Van Essen's April article. ) We hope this year to band far more than just nine daysduring late April and early May.

As Shum Suffel remarked in the last Tanager, March is a relatively calm period between ourwintering birds and spring migrants. Some of our early migrants and returning summer nesters hadstarted arriving this month. Shum reported the first HOODED ORIOLE on March 6 in Pasadena,Shirley Wells had WESTERN TANAGERS and BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS at San Pedro by the endof March. At the same time, some of our lingering winter birds finally disappeared.—hopefully re-turning to their nesting grounds. Jon Dunn and Kim Garrett last saw the WINTER WREN at MorongoValley on March 7, the SNOW GEESE had departed from the Saltan Sea by early March, and aMOUNTAIN CHICKADEE was still at Morongo on March 29. The SAW-WHET OWL at Salton SeaState Park was last seen on March 13. The LOUISIANA HERONS were still at the Seal Beach marsheson March 25,

A BLUE-WINGED TEAL was reported atMalibu in mid-March, -while another was seennear Crowley Lake in early April. A large flockof migrating TURKEY VULTURES (25 birds) wasseen over Morongo Valley on March 29. TheRED-SHOULDERED HAWK seems to be tryingto expand its range onto the Colorado Desert.Jan Tarble has seen one or two birds regularlynear Palm Springs, another was seen near Oasison the North Salton Sea Christmas Count, andstill another (more than one? ) has been irregular-ly seen at Morongo Valley since the fall of 1969.We last spotted the latter bird on April 5.

BALD EAGLES are still being reportedfrom Lake Mathews, including at least one adult.I must wonder if they may not be breeding? Thisspecies is a very early nester throughout itsrange, laying eggs in January and February.Another endangered species is the CALIFORNIALEAST TERN. The number of nesting sights hasbeen rapidly diminishing over the past few years.Anyone finding a nesting colony this summershould carefully note its location to Mrs. BarbaraMassey, Dept. of Biology, California State College,Long Beach, 90801.

Ed Mavojosky found a SOLITARY SAND-PIPER near Malibu Lagoon on March 22. It wassubsequently seen by several other observers.This is a very rare spring migrant and only aregular migrant in the fall, but in very low num-bers. COMMON MERGANSER and ROYAL TERNwere also reported at this time from Malibu.The merganser is relatively more uncommon in

10

salt water, while still uncommon on inland freshwaters. Richard Hilton and Bill Dana reportedtwo ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS at Lake Mathewsin March.

Peter Christensen had nesting HUTTON'SVIREOS near Pasadena in late March, which isnot unusual but rarely reported. KINGBIRDSwere back in March and looking for nest sites.The first migrant warblers were being seen inthe first week of April: NASHVILLE, BLACK-THROATED GRAY, MACGILLIVEAY'S, andWILSON'S. SCOTT'S and BULLOCK'S ORIOLESwere common in Joshua Tree National Monumentand Morongo Valley in early April. I found myfirst LAZULI BUNTING on April 8 near SanDiego. CASSIN'S FINCHES and RED CROSS-BILLS were still being seen by Grace Nixon andShirley Wells in Rolling Hills during March. ABOAT-TAILED GRACKLE was seen at FinneyLake in early April. Perhaps they \vill nest atthe Salton Sea this year for the first time.

With May now starting, the nesting seasonfor most birds on the desert is drawing to a. close,but the mountain species are just arriving ontheir territories. One might spend a late after-noon at Lake Fulmour looking, and listening, forSPOTTED OWLS and the WHIP-POOR-WILLS.BLACK RAILS, LEAST BITTERNS, YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOOS, and BRONZED COWBIRDSmight be found by visiting the Imperial Dam vi-cinity. DIPPERS and BLACK SWIFTS might beseen in late May at Falls vale or Santa AnitaCanyon. The cool mountains -will be an excellent

ConHttued on preoicua page