crying, or so I thought. I got up and went into the dining room to see the 
     
     tiniest Chickadee I've ever seen doing a frantic dance on top of the window 
     
     feeder. When I moved close to him, he didn't fly off but increased his 
     
     frantic cries for help. Out on the deck I went. Still he didn't fly off but 
     
     turned to me. Down the steps I went, over to the feeder, and still he 
     
     stayed. I poked around in the trays on either side to show him how to get to 
     
     the seed he'd been looking at through the plastic bin. While my finger 
     
     stirred, he popped down, grabbed a seed, then flew off. A moment later he 
     
     was back on top of the bin imploring me to help. Well, this time I took out 
     
     my pen so that I could stir the Seed out of the bin into the tray to show how 
     
     he could do it with his beak. He popped down and perched on my moving finger 
     
     while I demonstrated. Then he sang to me in gratitude right up into my face» 
     
     while I scrabbled out the seed, "dee—dee—dee!", grabbed another seed and flew 
     
     up into the maple. He sang to me again and returned to the feeder as I left 
     
     to go into the house. He'd learned. 
     
    

    
     The most remarkable event I witnessed April 4th was a solitary Blue Jay 
     
     chasing off a flock of over twenty grackles, and then mounting guard 
     
     unselfishly on the tree overhead while thirty-some finches got a bite to eat. 
     
     Only after they had eaten for about ten minutes did he quietly land among 
     
     them and feed quietly - without scaring them! This is not at all usual Blue 
     
     Jay behaviour, and I think, had others been present, he would not have dared 
     
     to share in such a way. Two or three days later Marjorie watched (the same?) 
     
     Blue Jay performing the same service! 
     
    
   
   
    
     NEWS FROM ABOUT: Compiled by J. Dan McAskill 
     
    
   
   
    
     Congratulations to Dr. Ian MacQuarrie on being awarded the Island Nature 
     
     Trust's Natural Areas Award at the May 6 annual meeting. Ian's long term 
     
     commitment to conservation of ecological reserves on Prince Edward Island, 
     
     his 35 years of teaching about the Island's natural history, his motivation 
     
     of many of today's conservation leaders, and many other achievements earned 
     
     him this additional distinction. 
     
    

    
     The eighth Endangered Spaces Report Card was released on April 28th by 
     
     the World Wildlife Fund. The Island received a "B" Terrestrial rating for 
     
     its identification of 413 ha. of new natural areas, proposing a system of 
     
     Provincial Forests and seven new Wildlife Management Areas, and cooperative 
     
     work to identify new forested natural areas. This brings the Island's 
     
     protected spaces to 2.52%, just over a 1/3 of the way to the 7% goal of year 
     
     2000. In addition, the province shared in the "D+" Marine rating for the 
     
     Atlantic Region. 
     
    

    
     A hearty thanks to Premier Glen Clark of British Columbia for the B.C. 
     
     government's acquisition of 11,000 ha of dry grassland in the Caribou- 
     
     Chilcotin region of interior British Columbia. This is that province's 
     
     rarest ecosystem. (adapted from CNF's Nature Alert 8:2) 
     
    

    
     The Grand Manan Bird Observatory is seeking volunteer field assistants 
     
     to help operate a migration monitoring station on Grand Manan. Requirements 
     
     include being able to identify most birds in the northeast by sight and 
     
     sound, working and living together in close quarters as a member of a team, 
     
     getting up early, and tolerating biting insects, cool temperatures, and foggy 
     
    
   
   
    
     l3