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Another spring arrival in the Triangle
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Another spring arrival in the Triangle
- From: Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>
- Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2001 17:56:43 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Hi Carolinabirders,
We had a field trip today in honor of visiting speaker Richard Lewontin,
a famous evolutionary biologist. Took him first to Occoneechee Mountain,
then to West Point on the Eno, then to Penny's Bend. Had my eyes peeled
for migrants, but saw few. In fact, the only 100% certain migrant we
found was a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, which was foraging just below the
rangers' house at Occoneechee. We also found a Blue-headed Vireo a little
ways up the road from there; many folks have been referring to this as a
migrant, but they actually winter here in small numbers, so it's harder
to tell...
Otherwise, things still look like winter. The only warblers were Pine at
Occoneechee and Yellow-rumped at West Point; the butterbutts aren't even
molting noticeably into breeding plumage yet. Did see another high-flying
unidentified accipiter here that might have been migrating, and
suspiciously large numbers of Eastern Phoebe. But also saw Yellow-bellied
Sapsucker there, and Dark-eyed Juncos at Occoneechee, and White-throated
Sparrows at Penny's Bend, and kinglets of both types all over the place.
We didn't even see leps, which was disappointing after Randy Emmitt saw
loads of them at Occoneechee on Saturday; our only one was an Anglewing
of some kind at Penny's Bend. The main signs of spring were in the
wildflowers, particularly the Dutchman's Breeches at Penny's Bend and the
Trailing Arbutus and wild ginger (Hexastylus spp.) at Occoneechee.
Good birding,
Josh
Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)
jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/