-3-

bellivd Plnvvr and tho color of this bird would easily distinguish it. This would be in the early l920‘s.

My uncles in Brudenell

were ardent gunners

and often hunted Field Plover as they were then called. Very often they w0uld come from Brudenell to Summerville, because

at that time, the Summerville area had much larger areas of open fields than either New Perth or Brudenell and it was in Summerville that larger flocks were to be found. This hunting took place about the turn of the century.”

SIGHTING OF A NORTHERN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER

In February, Kevin Hughes from Corran Bann observed a female northern three- toed woodpecker upstream on the Winter River near a log cabin. He

watched it for several minutes from a distance of approximately 15 feet as

it chipped away on a dead red spruce stripping the bark from the top to bottom. The ladder stripping on the back and sides was distinct, hence it could

not be an Artic Three-Toed Woodpecker. Mr. Hughes is quite familiar with downy and hariy woodpeckers which also exist in that area. This represents

a positive sighting of a species previously listed as hypothetical on the P.E.l. field checklist of birds.

The Northern Three-toed Woodpecker breeds all across Canada. Its southern and eastern limits are poorly defined, but it breeds in Newfoundland, Anticoste Island and Northern New Brunswick.. In Nova Scotia there are sight records only. (W.E. Godfrey, l976, The Birds of Canada).

More recently, Mr. Hughes observed an arctic three-toed woodpecker also work- ing on a dead red spruce. Mr. Hughes noted that the work of the three-

toed woodpeckers on trees was much more obvious than that of the downy and hariy woodpeckers. l have observed sapSucker activity there and flickers

are also common. Hence, the winter River area has all species of Woodpeckers which occur.

Kathy Martin

Biology Department University of P.E.l. Charlottetown, P.E.l.

NATURALISTS ON THE WATCH

This month we have a c0nsiderable volume of sightings because sightings

received for February, March and April were not included in the last two newsletters.

Thelma -Murchison at a Bélfast Cammunity School Meeting this winter told us that others saw a Mocking bird at Pinette in the spring of 1976 (May or

June) early in the evening. It sang a whole repertoire of songs, stopped and then repeated all of them again.