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     NATURAL HISTORW SOCIETY OF PEI 
     
    
   
   
    
     1977 EXECUTIVE 
     
    
   
   
    
     PAST PRESIDENT: ELEANOR LOWE 
     
     CHARLOTTETOWN 
     
     'PRESIDENT: DIANE GRIFFIN 
     
     NEW HAVEN 
     
     VICE-PRESIDENT: WINSTON JOHNSTON 
     
     CHARLOTTETOWN 
     
     SECRETARY - 
     
     TREASURER: MARGARET MALLETT 
     
     CHARLOTTETOWN 
     
     fASSISTANT- 
     
     SECRETARY 
     
     TREASURER: HELEN DUFFY 
     
     CHARLOTTETOWN 
     
     YDIRECTORS: KATHERINE CLOUGH 8 BRUCE MACLAREN 
     
     CHARLOTTETOWN CHARLOTTETOWN 
     
     NEWSLETTER EDITOR: KATHY MARTIN 
     
     WINSLOE 
     
    
   
   
    
     PROVINCIAL BIRD IS ON THE ROAD 
     
    
   
   
    
     A bill to declare the Bluejay as the Provincial Avian Emblem will be presented 
     
     during the current sitting of the legislature. During Environment Week, I976, 
     
    

    
     a province-wide election was sponsored by the Natural History Societytto find 
     
    

    
     the popular choice. A brief from the Natural History Society was later presented to 
     
     Environment Minister, Gilbert R. Clements, to indicate the Bluejay had been 
     
    

    
     a landslide winner. 
     
    
   
   
    
     FEEDBACK ON THE BLACK BIRD ISSUE 
     
     OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY NEWSLETTER 
     
    
   
   
    
     Bruce MacLaren sent the following comments: 
     
    
   
   
    
     I'My personal knowledge of the red-winged Blackbird goes back to at 
     
     least l92h and my brother is reasonably sure that members of our 
     
     family observed them at least as far back as l9l7. One or possibley 
     
     two pairs, would be seen at what is now Dewar's Mill in Brudenell. 
     
     The sightings were rare because any time a bird was seen the event 
     
     wOuld be reported at home.” 
     
    
   
   
    
     On the Upland Sandpiper: 
     
    
   
   
    
     “The Upland Sandpiper, better known to me as Field Plover has 
     
     certainly appeared in migration flights in August. I have seen 
     
     flocks of a dozen and up to 30 or ho in the North Shore area 
     
     betWeen Cable Head and Priest Pond, in particular Monticello and 
     
     Big Pond. I wish I could date these sightings accurately but 
     
     unfortunatley i did not recordlthan. It would be in the period 
     
     from l955 to l96h and I am sure it was August. On one occassion 
     
     'when I saw a flotk at Monticello, l talkedcto the owner of the 
     
     farm and he told me that he had never seen them later than the 
     
    

    
     last week in August. Mv wife told me that in her school days. 
     
    

    
     she and her brother walked' across the fields to Pisquid school 
     
     from her home in Fanningbrook. They would often flush groups of 
     
     plover on the way to or frOm school and from her description 
     
    

    
     there seems little doubt that these were the birds now called Upland 
     
     Sandpiper. The only other one that it could be would be the Black-