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CarolinaBirds for Friday, April 28, 2006
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Subject: Waxwings/B. Owls?
From: "Rob G." <thrush(AT)hotmail.com>
Date: 28 Apr 2006 7:48am
for last couple weeks have been seeing good-sized flocks of C. Waxwings
throughout central Chapel Hill. Have not seen the campus B. Owls since
around 3rd week of March -- should be well into nesting by now, but not
seeing evidence of their usual presence on McCorkle Pl. (except for some
suspicious droppings/whitewash!) -- they may have moved to adjacent area
(arboretum or Polk Place quad?) so may check that out on weekend.
In any event just wondering if anyone out there (Rob B., Eric H. ???)
knows what the breeding lifespan of B. Owls might be -- do they breed
throughout their lives or at a certain age become infertile? Or, if no one
knows the specific answer for B. Owls, does anyone know in general whether
raptors (particularly females) lose fertility at a certain age?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}
**Rob Gluck...... Chapel Hill, NC...... thrush(AT)hotmail.com ....
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Subject: Mason Farm 4/28
From: alan kneidel <mylittledemon(AT)earthlink.net>
Date: 28 Apr 2006 12:04pm
Hey folks,
I spent 8 am to about 11 am birding Mason Farm Biological Reserve here
in Chapel Hill. Lots of birds and lots of birders! Best moment was a
Scarlet Tanager and a Baltimore Oriole sharing the same yellow poplar...
Here's the list:
71 species
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Turkey Vulture
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Spotted Sandpiper - 1
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 1 singing
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 2 males
Belted Kingfisher - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
White-eyed Vireo - 10
Yellow-throated Vireo - 1 singing
Red-eyed Vireo - 10
Northern Parula - 2 singing
Yellow Warbler - 2 singing
Chestnut-sided Warbler - 1 singing
Black-throated Blue Warbler - 4 singing - 1 female
Yellow-rumped Warbler - diminishing - 4
Black-throated Green Warbler - 1 singing
Yellow-throated Warbler - 1 singing
Pine Warbler - 1 singing
Prairie Warbler - 2 singing
Black-and-white Warbler - 3 singing
American Redstart - 4 singing
Prothonotary Warbler - 1 singing
Ovenbird - 6 singing
Northern Waterthrush - 2 singing
Louisiana Waterthrush - 1
Common Yellowthroat - 15
Yellow-breasted Chat - 5
Summer Tanager - 2
Scarlet Tanager - 1
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow - 5
White-throated Sparrow
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole - 1
Baltimore Oriole - 1
American Goldfinch
I was frustrated that I couldn't locate Hooded or Kentucky Warblersl...
and still no thrushes !
Good birding,
Alan Kneidel
Charlotte, NC
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Subject: White Downy Woodpecker
From: Russell Roberson <russell-roberson(AT)nc.rr.com>
Date: 28 Apr 2006 12:12pm
I was over at Sandy Creek Park yesterday after the rain stopped. I
was checking on the Gnatcatcher nest --- the sitter was still on the
nest. While there I saw the white downy for a second time. This
time instead of looking up at him(her), it landed on a dead tree
trunk in the beaver pond. I got a good look at its back. The tail
was grayish for the last 1/2 inch or so and when I looked closely at
the back I could see a faint hint of a normal downy back. Never the
less, it still looks all white as it flies. It is good fun to see it
fly over the beaver pond and thru the dead trees.
Russell Roberson
russell-roberson(AT)nc.rr.com
Professor Emeritus Duke Univ
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Subject: Blue-winged Warbler in Manteo, NC
From: jeff lewis <jlewis_obx(AT)yahoo.com>
Date: 28 Apr 2006 3:09pm
Hi friends,
We've had another (or the same one as last week)
Blue-winged Warbler here in the Elizabethan Gardens
for the past three days. Nothing much else though,
just an occasional Prairie, Parula, Ovenbird or
Worm-eating Warbler or Indigo Bunting. We still have a
Hermit Thrush (a couple of days ago), as well as
White-throated Sparrows and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet
today.
Skip Morgan, over at Outer Banks Birdwatchers in Nags
Head, has 2 or 3 White-crowneds coming to his feeders
but the White-winged Dove apparently was a
one-day-wonder.
The Carolina Wrens amaze me with their speedy nest
building - you could fall asleep on a bench and wake
up with a nest in your shirt collar!
Also witnessed a Brown Thrasher feeding three young up
in a camellia today.
Speaking of babies, I guess the local Rock Pigeons are
on about their third brood by now (I heard babies in a
nest under the Avon Pier way back about February)!
We had a Giant Swallowtail emerge from under one of
our plant tables at the nursery today - dried a while
and then took it's first flight - beautiful!
Jeff Lewis
Manteo, NC
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Subject: indigo b. and grosbeak at the feeder
From: "Louise Barden" <louise(AT)lbarden.com>
Date: 28 Apr 2006 3:19pm
In the last two days, our feeders have been visited by a beautiful indigo
bunting in full breeding plummage, and, this morning, a rosebreasted
grosbeak.
And clouds of Cedar Waxwings are still landing in the tops of the trees or
zipping overhead.
Since I work at my home office, and spot them as I look up from my computer,
I'm beginning to think I may have to close the window and pull the shades to
get anything done. Of course, what I really do is grab the binoculars and,
if possible, the camera.
Louise Barden
East Charlotte, on the edge of Evergreen Nature Preserve (www.meckbirds.org
-- click Local Birding Spots)
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Subject: Roanoke River Partners/Migrants in the yard
From: "Kendrick Weeks" <kendrickweeks(AT)earthlink.net>
Date: 28 Apr 2006 5:49pm
Hello All,
It has been a very birdy week...
I took a friend canoe camping in the Devil's Gut off of Gardners Creek near
Jamesville for his birthday last Friday and saturday. It was absolutely
amazing. The paddle from Roberson's Marina to the camping platform was a
relaxing 6 miles. Lots of prothonotary warblers, parulas, yellow-throated
warblers, great-crested flycatchers, and yellow-throated vireos were present
and some sections had lots of American redstarts. Great egrets, little blue
herons, and great blue herons were around every corner. Many were young
birds. We briefly saw one small flock of white ibis. The camping platform
is located at the beginning of Lower Deadwater Creek and is surrounded by
contiguous gum-cypress swamp. At night, the water seemed to boil with
activity from long-nosed gar, banded and brown watersnakes, and who knows
what else. From the camping platform we could hear at least three Barred
Owls calling all night. We set out on a late night expedition that allowed
us to witness several barred owls up close and many aquatic critters making
meals of one another. In the morning, we spent much of breakfast watching
prothonotary warbler antics. The camping platform seemed to be on the
boundary of two prothonotary warbler territories. We saw them grapple in
mid-air only separating from the foray when they hit the water! I wonder
how many times a snake is waiting there when that happens!? I think I was
bitten by mosquitoes three times in all. Not bad at all. We took out at
the Cypress Grill in Jamesville on Saturday and had a nice lunch of fresh
seafood. It all happened so fast. I hope to do another trip like it, only
longer, in the future.
Today, I heard a bunch of birds in the yard and decided to take a break and
investigate;
Yellow-rumped warblers >=6
Black-throated Blue Warblers 1 old male and 1 young male
Prairie Warbler 1
Hooded Warbler 1 (heard only chip notes briefly)
American Redstart 1
Worm-eating Warbler 1
Ovenbirds 2 (on territories for a couple of weeks) One has a peculiar
vireo-like ending to his song
Scarlet Tanager 1
Summer Tanager 1
Great-crested flycatcher 1
Blue Gray Gnatcatcher 1 I think they are nesting (female with material)
Veery 1
Wood Thrushes 2
Usual Suspects (American goldfinch, northern cardinal, downy woodpecker,
red-bellied woodpecker, white-breasted nuthatch, Carolina wren, Carolina
chickadee, tufted titmouse, and brown-headed cowbird)
Kendrick Weeks
Fuquay-Varina
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Subject: (Fwd) Painted Bunting monitoring project
From: "Will Cook" <cwcook(AT)duke.edu>
Date: 28 Apr 2006 6:08pm
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Painted Bunting Observer Team Seeks Help from Citizen Scientists
April 25, 2006 ” By the University of North Carolina at Wilmington
WILMINGTON, N.C. ” The Painted Bunting Observer Team (PBOT) at the
University of North Carolina Wilmington is seeking help from
volunteer citizens to support a research study in North and South
Carolina to develop strategies to sustain and increase the numbers of
these brightly colored migratory birds.
Sadly, the Painted Bunting population is declining in the coastal
areas of North and South Carolina, said Dr. Jamie Rotenberg,
ornithologist at UNCW. Painted Buntings (Passerina ciris) arrive in
the Carolinas usually in April and stay throughout the summer,
migrating south during the month of August.
They live and breed in scrubby shrub areas mixed with trees. In North
Carolina, their breeding habitats are found only near salt water, in
a narrow range along coasts and waterways. In South Carolina, Painted
Buntings also favor the coast, but breed well inland in low country
agricultural shrub. As coastal habitats continue to be developed at
unprecedented levels, and as more inland shrub is cleared, these
spectacular birds are losing their homes.
Breeding Bird Survey data reveal that Eastern Painted Bunting
populations declined at least 3.5 percent annually over a 30 year
period from 1966 to 1995. Scientists are especially concerned about
Painted Buntings, so much so that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(USFWS) recently raised the Painted Bunting to "Focal Species"
status. The new status allows funding to develop means of bringing
Painted Bunting populations back up to healthy and sustainable
levels.
Last spring, Rotenberg began a small, grass-roots citizen-science
project to examine distribution and feeding habits of Painted
Buntings in North Carolina. Since Painted Buntings readily visit
backyard bird feeders, citizens, acting as scientists, assisted
Rotenberg in the collection of vital data. These Painted Buntings
Observer Team volunteers, or PBOTs, recorded bunting locations and
monitored the bird™s use of their backyard bird feeders. The small,
pilot project grew to include more than 65 volunteers from New Bern
and Sneed™s Ferry in the north to Supply and Oak and Bald Head
islands in the south.
Building on last year™s work, UNCW will receive a $20,000 grant from
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct a pilot study to
develop strategies for sustaining the Painted Bunting populations in
these areas. The volunteer Painted Bunting Observer Teams are a
crucial part of the study as these citizen scientists monitor and
collect behavioral data in the field.
This year, Rotenberg would like to recruit volunteers covering an
area as far north as Morehead City, N.C., the northern-most breeding
area for Painted Buntings, and south throughout the coastal plain of
South Carolina.
śVolunteer Painted Bunting Observer Teams are a crucial part of the
study as citizen scientists can help us monitor and collect
behavioral data in the field,ť explained Rotenberg. śOur goal is to
have hundreds of PBOTs throughout the Painted Bunting breeding
grounds in North and South Carolina.ť
Rotenberg and colleagues will evaluate whether backyard bird feeders
help breeding buntings compared to their cousins that only use
natural areas for their food supply, such as birds state parks and
reserves. They hope that their efforts, along with the help of
hundreds of citizen scientists, will begin the foundations of
recovery for one of our area™s most beautiful birds.
To become a PBOT volunteer member or to learn more about the project,
please contact: Dr. Jamie Rotenberg, UNCW ornithologist, at
pbot(AT)uncw.edu.
Contact Info:
Dr. Jamie Rotenberg
UNCW ornithologist
E-mail : pbot(AT)uncw.edu
Tel : 910-962-7675
------- End of forwarded message -------
--
Charles W. "Will" Cook w 919-660-5144
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook cwcook(AT)duke.edu
Box 90340, Biology Dept., Duke Univ., Durham, NC 27708
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Subject: Scouting report for shorebird workshop: excellent.
From: "Cape Romain Bird Observatory" <crbo(AT)dmzs.com>
Date: 28 Apr 2006 8:06pm
I heard from a team that scouted the Santee Coastal Reserve for tomorrow's
CRBO shorebird workshop.
The report: "fantastic shorebirding". 2 White-rumped Sandpipers, dozens of
Stilt Sandpipers, lots of Solitary Sandpipers, oodles of peeps, lots of
Dunlin, thousands of Lesser Yellowlegs, both Dowitcher species, Spotted
Sandpipers all over the place and more.
Today's biting insect report from the Santee Coastal Reserve was also
favorable.
If anyone in coastal SC is wondering where to go birding tomorrow, come join
us for this free event. You are not likely to find better birding in the SC
coastal plain tomorrow.
The event is free, below is the meeting time, location and directions.
We will meet at 8:00am on Saturday April 29 in the parking lot of the Francis
Marion National Forest Wambaw District Office. We will then proceed to the
Santee Coastal Reserve.
Please do not go straight to the Santee Coastal Reserve on your own! There is
a Youth Turkey Hunt scheduled for Saturday morning, so it is important for us
to go in a convoy and not to stray from our direct route to the shorebird
areas.
Directions to meeting site:
From Charleston, take U.S. Hwy 17 north for about 36 miles to its intersection
with SC Hwy 45, at McClellanville, SC. Continue north on U.S. 17 about 0.3
mile to North Pinckney St. Turn right and travel about 0.1 mile. We will meet
in the parking lot on the right beside the Wambaw Ranger Station offices.
From Georgetown, take US Hwy 17 south for about 20 miles. Just past the
McClellanville town limits, you will see a boat dealership on the left named
Cape Romain Marine. Turn left beside (barely past) Cape Romain Marine onto
North Pinckney Street. Turn right and travel about 0.1 mile. We will meet in
the parking lot on the right beside the Wambaw Ranger Station offices.
If you get lost or are running late Saturday morning, call Nathan Dias at
843-607-0105
--
Nathan Dias
Executive Director
Cape Romain Bird Observatory
http://www.crbo.net/
crbo(AT)dmzs.com
P.O. Box 362
McClellanville, SC 29458
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Subject: Jackson Park Delivers for CBC Visitors
From: John Lindfors <jwl127(AT)netzero.com>
Date: 28 Apr 2006 9:30pm
I am only speaking for myself, but I am really gratified that Jackson
Park provided a pleasant and productive birding experience for the
birders who have been coming. I co-ordinated the Thursday (4/27)
afternoon walk, but it was really Harvey Neal, Ron Selvey, and John
Ennis who where instrumental in finding birds.
I was not comfortable at all about this trip. I had been at the local
hospital, and when I stepped out the wind was blowing and the walk was
starting in an hour! Sunshine and wind usually add up to zero birds. I
dreaded the thought of trying to stretch our walk out even an hour with
"Well, what do you know! Another cardinal, robin, mourning dove et al.
But dividing the group into two (we had 28 people scheduled, all but
about 5 did attend.). When you come to the park (In Hendersonville, NC
20 miles south of Asheville, NC) You can walk for an hour and a half and
see palm warbler, blue gray gnatcatcher, and Yellow-rumped Warbler, with
perhaps a Great Crested Flycatcher or a Red-eyed Vireo singing in the
backround). Then at the end of the Warbler Trail you might come to one
tree as Ron and John Ennis did on Thursday morning and find 11 species
of warblers!
Our group saw or heard quite a few (Common Yellowthroat, Pine Warbler,
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, and Ovenbird). Remember,
our walk was in the heat of the day usually the worst time to see birds,
and yet we managed to see or hear altogether about 53 birds.
I appreciate meeting all the folk that came out. I had great
conversations with many (Doug Johnston from the United Kingdom,
originally and Jocelyn and Pat McLaughlin from Charlotte, NC where a
small part of the ones whose names I didn't get).
I want to thank Gail Lankford who certainly has been very busy lately
getting these trips organized for the meeting. (Forgive me if others
who were equally busy have not been mentioned who made the trips such a
success.)
Regards,
John Lindfors
PS Barbara and Jim Neal, Friday morning saw Golden-winged Warbler and
Yellow-throated Vireo very well at the end of the Warbler Trail. Ron
Selvey and I saw Black-throated Blue, Worm-eating Warbler, and
Blue-headed Vireo very close together on the Bottomland Trail. (Later
Wayne Forsythe told us that he too came across those birds along with a
Black-and-White Warbler etc.)
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