August 2, 1949, Mendota Pool, NE of Mendota, Fresno Co. on San Joaquin River, Marsh and brush and flat areas behind dam, 2 mi. NE of town. Excellent area. Hot and calm when we were there at 1600-1645 PST. With Dan Slater Pied-billed Grebes - 3 Blue Heron - 4 American Egrets - common (50-75) Snowy Egrets - common (40-50) Black-crowned Night Herons - 2 Bittern - 1 Fulvous Tree-duck - Dendrocygna bicolor(helva) - new life lister - After looking in marsh and swamp areas all day, one finally got up in front of Dan, and he asked me if that was a tree-duck since he had never seen one, and knew I was especially looking for them - it was - the white tail band showing plainly as it took off, and as it turned the ruddy underside was plain, and it uttered whistle-like notes in flight, and hung its neck extra low when alighting about 75 feet from where it flushed. 3 more flushed from the same 10'-circle of area in the bulrush. Then I clapped my hands to flush some more, but only stilts and avocets rose, and then a minute or two later, 2 more flushed from the same area as the 1st four tree-ducks had flushed. One flew a complete circle around us at a distance of about 100 yards, but the other 5 made only short flights. They appeared just slightly larger than a mallard. Mallards - 18 Pintails - 40 Blue-winged Teal - 4 Cinnamon Teals - 25 Canvasbacks -female plumage - 3 Ruddy Ducks - 11 Vulture White-tailed Kites - 2 W. Red-tailed Hawk Sparrow Hawk Coots and small young (3" long) Killdeer - 12 Long-billed Curlew - 7 Greater Yellow-legs - 2 Red Knots - 15 on mud flat ground Red-backed Sandpipers in fall plumage - 45 Least Sandpipers - 60 Dowitchers - 29 Western Sandpipers - 16 Marbled Godwits - 14 Avocets - 35 Black-necked Stilts - 150 Wilson Phalaropes - 70 California Gulls Forestern Terns - 4 Caspian Terns - 5 on mud flats - flushed and circled about me, giving very raucus call notes. Watched one make a 70'-dive into the San Joaquin River, and come up from complete submergence with a 3-4" fish held cross-wise in its bill. The fish was a shiny silver color - probably a cyprinid feeding at the surface. Black Terns - 6 - 1 imm. or winter-adults Mourning Doves -.50-40 Western Kingbirds Tree Swallows - 5-600 amassed on power lines near the river, or over it. Barn Swallows - 20 Cliff Swallows - 1200-1500 on wire lines near or over the river, not associated with the tree swallow flocks California Shrikes English Sparrows Western Meadowlarks Yellow-headed Blackbirds Calif. Bicolor Redwings Oriole nest in willow at 14' on N side. Tree in open.