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Re: Sibley, Durham Rufous, birding economics, Yaupon Hollies, etc.



>>And you SC birders better get out your
>>wallets, you rank below *Arkansas*!

Weez jes' a bunch o' po' ol' birduhs down heah in thuh suth'n haf uh
Carolina. But weez havin' fun!
;)

Gary Phillips
Conway, SC
 Zone 8
axis1@sccoast.net
"Only under the condition of ordeal may I recover the sparrow." (Walker
Percy)
-----Original Message-----
From: Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>
To: carolinabirds@duke.edu <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
Date: Friday, March 30, 2001 5:46 PM
Subject: Sibley, Durham Rufous, birding economics, Yaupon Hollies, etc.


>Hi Carolinabirders,
>
>A lot of you buy your books from Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc.
>and pooh-pooh those of us who patronize the local independent bookstores.
>Well, the Regulator Bookstore on 9th street in Durham just gave you yet
>another reason to blow off the big corporations:
>
>On Fri, 30 Mar 2001, Regulator Bookshop wrote:
>>
>> Saturday May 5, 1:00 p.m.
>> DAVID ALLEN SIBLEY
>> The author and illustrator of the phenomenal new Sibley Guide to Birds
>> (Knopf) will be here to talk about his book.
>
>Let's see Amazon beat that! I joined the Regulator's discount buying
>club, and in addition to getting cheaper books than usual, I also get a
>regular e-mail notice of upcoming book signings and other events such as
>Sibley's visit. See y'all there!
>
>A post on the Florida birding listserv led me to this web page:
>http://www.epa.gov/watertrain/birds/3worth.html
>In case anyone doubted that birders are a big part of the economy...
>Surprised that we in NC are being outspent by Virginia, though. And you
>SC birders better get out your wallets, you rank below *Arkansas*!
>;--)
>
>The female Rufous Hummingbird is still visiting the feeder at my place. I
>got a few photos of it back, not all were disastrous. Some might even be
>identifiable to genus. No Ruby-throats yet, but they're being reported
>all over the Texas and Florida listservs, along with warblers and vireos
>of all sorts, Indigo Buntings, and the rest. They're on the way!
>
>On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, Stephen J. Perry wrote:
>>
>> A Baltimore oriole came to a friends feeder in Durham on Sat a.m.
>> Other than that not a single migrant for me yet!
>
>Not necessarily a migrant. Will Cook tells me that they used to be
>regularly tallied on the Raleigh CBC. Some folks have mentioned Solitary
>Vireo as a migrant, but they're here in winter too; the only way to be
>sure you're seeing a migrant SOVI is if you identify it to the subspecies
>that breeds in the mountains. The wintering birds belong to a different
>subspecies, that breeds in New England and thereabouts...
>
>> In a posting last week, someone mentioned a brown-headed cowbird in
>> the context of migrants: I thought these were residents (Sibley).
>> I've had one hanging around my feeders for about a month now. Is this
>> unusual?
>
>Brown-headed Cowbirds do migrate. Being here all year does not make them
>residents. The birds we see in winter head north to breed, while those we
>see in summer spend the winter further south. This appears to be a common
>syndrome among birds, and is probably true of several species around
>here, including the aforementioned oriole.
>
>> Also, an amazing encounter with a flock of cedar waxwings on Duke
>> campus: 30 or so birds landed in a large evergreen bush to feast on
>> the red berries (I have no idea what type of bush, sorry) literally 5
>> feet from me.
>
>This is a regular annual event which I've observed every year since I got
>here. It's great fun to observe. I recently learned why the Waxwings
>invade Duke at the end of the winter, even though the berries appear
>months beforehand. The plants they are denuding of berries are Yaupon
>Holly (Ilex vomitoria), a species native to the NC coastal plain.
>Apparently, the bright red berries are inedible when they first ripen.
>Somehow, after 2-3 freezes, the freezing and thawing renders them edible.
>Then the waxwings move in...
>
>Good birding,
>
>Josh
>
>
>Joshua S. Rose
>Duke University
>Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)
>
>jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
>http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/
>
>
>
>