Viewing page 39 of 372

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

May 14, 1932. This in Merced County district where every acre has been covered with Thallium. Saw in a little swamp about [[underlined]] 200 Black necked Stilts, [[/underlined]] 125 or more [[underlined]] Black Terns, [[/underlined]] 4 [[underlined]] Forster's Terns, [[/underlined]] 4 [[underlined]] Black crowned Night Herons, [[/underlined]] 2 [[underlined]] Egrets, [[/underlined]] 2 [[underlined]] Blue Herons, [[/underlined]] 4 [[underlined]] Yellow headed blackbirds, [[/underlined]] 1 old [[underlined]] Pintail drake, [[/underlined]] 6 [[underlined]] Cinnamon Teal, [[/underlined]] several [[underlined]] mudhens [[/underlined]] and numerous small birds.
   Just at nightfall found a colony or roost of [[underlined]] mixed Cal. Redwings & tricolors [[/underlined]] in a hugh thistle path about 10 or 15 miles SW of Merced. Will go back tomorrow & investigate. Just before leaving first Blackbird colony near Patterson had a beautiful view of a [[underlined]] White tailed Kite [[/underlined]] & saw him dive with uplifted wings. Saw several [[underlined]] Texas nighthawks Linnets [[/underlined]] common everywhere & feeding largely in oat fields or fiddleneck patches. Arrived in Merced 830 PM. Quite a few horned larks in this territory.
[[underlined]] May 15, 1932 [[/underlined]] Left Merced at 630 AM and returned to thistle patch. Sure enough it proved to be a [[underlined]] hugh colony of Tricolored blackbirds. [[/underlined]] 
[[two vertical lines in left margin]]
The patch in both sides of a ditch was approximately 1½ miles long and averaged 100-125 feet wide varying from forty to three hundred or more. The thistles were full of nests. In one spot on the egdge of the patch we opened up lanes in about a square rod & found 28 nests of which 3 contained 4 eggs each, 7 -3 eggs each -2 two eggs and one three well developed young [[Balana?]] empty. Counts in west flyway made for one minute of birds entering colony only.

Transcription Notes:
he consistently misspells huge as hugh.