![Transcription Center logo](/themes/custom/tc_theme/assets/image/logo.png)
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
May 16, 1932. Call in Fred Roullard CoAg Com. & talk with Atkinson his rodent man. He has checked very carefully this spring & found no loss of bird life following exposure of thallium [[poropely?]]. He stopped poisonnig Mar 15 about. Then to Fresno State College where [[underlined]] Wm T. Shaw [[/underlined]] holds forth. Met him & had a nice visit over birds of the N.W. Then leaving Fresno we cut south & west to Stafford going thru a great deal of thallium treated country. [[underlined]] Linnets [[/underlined]], [[underlined]] Meadowlarks[[/underlined]], [[underlined]] Mourning Doves [[/underlined]], [[underlined]] Mockingbirds[[/underlined]] & [[underlined]] Shrikes[[/underlined]] in about order named were most abundant birds until desert area south of Tulare lake was reached. [[underlined]] Here Horned Larks and Shrikes[[/underlined]] were only common birds & in addition a few [[underlined]] meadowlarks[[/underlined]]. In this desert area we turned off the highway we were following onto a dirt road. I counted [[underlined]] 112 Horned larks in first five miles [[/underlined]]. We then struck a macadam road & for the next ten miles I [[underlined]] counted 20 birds [[/underlined]]. In all cases except five these were single bird or pairs. In the five cases family parties, from [[underlined]] 4-6 birds were noted. [[/underlined]] Nothing counted except birds between fences. This was about 400 PM and heat was so intense the majority were in the shade of fence posts. I wonder if [[Storer's?]] idea that they congregate along dirt roads to nest is correct or whether traffic is so frequent & fast along the highways that birds fail to flush. Country thru the 15 mile strip between paved highways seemed identical except for a little more greasewood toward the latter end of the trip.(over)