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There will be ample opportunity for others to become involved. If you want to get in on some of the action, contact one of the Chairmen or committee members and they will find an activity suitable to the time and talents you have to offer.

Action at a Birdfeeder in Lewis Point

Our feeder has not had as many Juncos or Black-Capped Chickadees as other years, about 6 or 7 of each at one time. We have had 7 Bluejays at one time and this past month a pair of Brown-capped Chickadees and a pair of Tree Sparrows visit every day. Three squirrels also come but are certainly not on good terms with each other and do not want the birds to have anything. I put out ham scraps and the squirrels vigorously tug and pull as they try to carry away pieces as large as they are. The only way to have pieces of fat remain for all to eat is to put a large nail through them and affix it to the feeding platform.

When we lived in Parkdale the only birds we had were Starlings by the dozen, English Sparrows and some gulls. We are quite happy that the Starlings and Sparrows have not yet found us here. We had one Starling once in 1975. We have had Evening Grosbeaks in other years, but none so far this winter.

Miriam West West Haven Crescent Lewis Point '

Seabird Surrender

Are the seabird colonies of the Lower north shore of the St. Lawrence River and Gulf about to go the way of the Passenger Pigeon and the Great Auk? Judging from "Seabird Surrender", an illustrated lecture delivered at the January Natural History Society meeting by David Cairns of Charlottetown, a biology student at Laval University, the outlook is grim. Laws to protect these birds are on the books, but enforcement is lax. In an area where there used to be 14 wardens there are now only two. Even in this modern age peopletstill go to the nesting areas and collect seabird eggs by the 5- gallon canful, for eating purposes. During the fall molt when ducks lose all their long wing-feathers and are temporarily unable to fly, men are known to shoot as many as 200 eiders a day, from a boat. Until concerned people become vocal enough to make government enforce better protection for these bird colonies from Seven Islands to the Strait of Belle Isle, their existance is indeed precarious.

These relatives of the auks — murres, razorbills, puffins, and Guillemots - have problems aplenty from natural predators. Gulls, which may nest in the same colony, are ever alert for opportunity to make off with eggs or young chicks. A parent puffin returning with a beakful of little fish may be hijacked on its way home and drop the fish, which the robber promptly snaps up. Back at the nest, a hungry puffin chick may venture too close to the entrance of the burrow and provide an easy meal for a watchful gull.

Margaret Mallett Charlottetown, P.E.I.