An All-Day Bird Trip at Washington, D. C.

Abstract

The spring of 1907 was a remarkable season for birds in the vicinity of Washington, D. C. Particularly was this the case with migrants, and in most other parts of the eastern United States these were also unusually numnerous both in species and in individuals. It was the writer's privilege to make an all-day trip on Mayi 3 of that year and the results seem worth a permanent record. For number of species observed in one day, it was, up to that time, the best record made by a single individual about the City of Washington and, in fact, there is to this day only one better. The weather during much of the spring of 1907 was unusually cool, and this apparently had considerably retarded the general migration of the later species. May 13 was clear and decidedly cool, an ideal day for bird observation. From the northern part of the City of Washington, the route followed was through the valley of Rock Creek to the National Zoological Park and Cleveland Park; thence by electric car through the city to the Anacostia River at the Anacostia Bridge; from there the route was by rowboat up the Anacostia River to a short distance above Bladensburg, Maryland, and back, with three short excursions on land at as many different points by the way. The return home from the Anacostia River was made by electric car through the city. The time occupied by this trip extended from 4:oo a.m. to 9:oo p.m. The distance covered was 32 miles, distributed as follows: by electric car 9, by boat i6, and on foot 7 miles. The region traversed included almost all the different kinds of country found about Washington, and our excursion thus resulted in a representative list of birds. The number of species observed on this day amounted to 103, with a total of 1846 individuals. The following species were unusually numerous for this locality: yellow-shafted flicker, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, white-eyed vireo, American redstart, Maryland yellow-throat, and yellow warbler. From the actual number of individuals noted, the ten most numerous species were the song sparrow, English sparrow, catbird, Am-erican redstart, purple grackle, American crow, fish crow, Maryland yellow-throat.