Bird lore - Project Puffin

The Audubon Societies 331
"It was a pleasure and a privilege to walk with him. He knew the country like a
fox or a bird, and passed through it as freely by paths of his own. He knew every track
in the snow or on the ground, and what creature had taken this path before him. . . .
His power of observation seemed to indicate additional senses. He saw as with a micro-
scope, heard as with ear-trumpet, and his mind was a photographic register of all he
saw and heard. And yet none knew better than he that it is not the fact that imports,
but the impression or elTect of the fact on your mind. Every fact lay in glory in his
mind, a tyjie of the order and beauty of the whole."—Excerpt from 'Biographical Sketch
of Thorcau" l)y Ralph Waldo i''.merson.
"July Q. The wind east, wet, disagreeable, and foggy. This is the most wonderful
climate in the world; the thermometer 52°, mosquitoes in profusion, plants blooming by
millions, and at every step you tread on flowers such as would be looked on in more
temperate climates with pleasure. I only wish I could describe plants as well as I can
the habits of birds. I have drawn all day on the Loon, a most difficult bird to imitate."
—Excerpt from 'The Life of Audubon,' describing a summer in Labrador.
"However valuable information may be, it can hardly be regarded as a substitute
for knowledge. Information is always at least second-hand, while knowledge is first-
hand. ... If the study of nature is conducted so as to cultivate chiefly a sentimental
appreciation of natural objects, it is merely more of the same thing. If it is conducted
so as to store the memory chiefly with encyclopaedic information, it misses the high
level of its educational opportunity. .
. . Constantly the teacher is confronted by
the cjuestion of choice between emphasis on principles and emphasis on details. A guid-
ing principle is needed. . . . mainly, the secret of education is the touching of a 'hidden
spring,' and we venture thai you are more likely to touch it through effective presen-
tation of great principles than through details. Once youth has found itself, then the
details will take care of themselves."— Excerpts from 'The School Science Series,' Jan.
1915-
"This book tells of some of the interesting things that I have found out with Nature.
If you like it, I hope that you will sometime tell me of many things that you may
discover for yourselves."— From the Introduction to 'The Story of a Thousand- Year
Pine,' by Enos A. Mills.
THE INNER HARBOR
The 'inner harbor' at low tide is a world by itself. At first sight, strangers
are impressed only by its salt, rank odor; but, let the tide come in, and they
marvel at its beauty. The birds and I wait for the tide's ebb and flow with
eager constancy. Twice every twenty-four hours this wonderful phenomenon
takes place, covering and uncovering a rich feeding-area for the birds and an
equally rich area of observation for me.
One never knows exactly what may happen on the inner harbor at low tide.
It is true that the Green Herons and Black-crowned Night Herons come to
feed with remarkable regularity; Kingfishers fly in from adjoining lakes, and
a small company of Fish Crows, with an ever watchful band of American
Crows, pay daUy visits to the tasty tidal flats, while the Barn Swallows skim
hither and yon, gathering large mouthfuls of food for their nestlings, hidden
nearby under an old bath-house and the porch of a seaside laboratory. Now