[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

blue things; "Stokes' Birding at Home"



Hi Carolinabirders,

Haven't actually seen any myself; the ninth street yard seems stuck 
perpetually in winter, with singing Yellow-rumps, Ruby-crowns, and 
White-throats all hanging around. The Parulas have left, and no other 
migrants have arrived to replace them. Did add Chipping Sparrow to the 
yard list, one was singing across the street in the big tree in front of 
the EK Powe school. I guess the weather's too nice for migrants to stop. 
And the hummingbird feeder hangs untouched; it sounds like the Rufous at 
my former house has flown the coop as well...

But a friend from Hillsborough mentioned that they had seen an Indigo 
Bunting (male, I'm assuming) at their bird feeder on Wednesday. That 
sounded a little early, until today, when I looked at the MASSBIRD 
on-line archive and saw a Blue Grosbeak reported from Cape Cod! Aren't 
they supposed to arrive here first? The Triangle Bird Checklist rates 
both bright blue species as "Very rare" last week, "rare" this week, and 
"uncommon" next week, so they should be showing up any day now for those 
of us who haven't seen them yet.

Meanwhile, back inside the house, I made a discovery last week and 
confirmed it this week. Remember some discussion a while back about a PBS 
birding TV show by Don and Lillian Stokes? Well, it's finally showing in 
the Triangle! Maybe it has been for a while; it's on at 10 AM Saturday. 
Most of us are out birding or doing other things then, that could be why 
it's escaped notice so far. Might have to set your VCR if you want to see 
both the birds and the show!

Good birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/