Early Nesting of the Tri-Colored Blackbird and Mallard
Early Nesting of the Tricolored Blackbird and Mallard
At Walker Basin, Kern County, California, on April 2, 1921, van Rossem made note of the following nestings which so far antedate anything published that a record of them is in order.
Agelaius. tricolor. Colony of about twenty pairs in an old dead tule patch. From one fresh to four eggs incubated were noted, and one female was seen carrying food, probably to small young.
Anas platyrhynchos. Nest with eight apparently fresh eggs in a clump of grass near the small stream which winds about and through the meadow.
These dates would be early even for the lowlands, but seem extraordinarily so for this mountain meadow where the temperature was close to freezing at night, and where several inches of snow fell on the night of the 3rd of April.
D. R. Dickey, A. J. Van Rossem
Pasadena, California, November 25, 1921
