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Website update; herping trip; Re: house finch question



Hi Carolinabirders,

My departure for the field season has been delayed a bit by wedding 
planning and lizard health complications. I'm hoping to get out tomorrow. 
In the meantime, no time for birding. I did get out for a few hours 
herping with friends last Friday, and in doing so ran across some birds. 
Most noteworthy were a Louisiana Waterthrush, near Duke Forest gate 28, 
and a calling Eastern Screech-Owl, just off Old Erwin Road. We actually 
never found our intended herping site, a Sphagnumy seepage area near gate 
28. We did see lots of interesting plants there, with Milo Pyne along 
identifying them for us; my favorite was Silene virginica. Eventually 
found three Cope's Gray Treefrogs calling in a somewhat embarassing 
place: a storm-drain in front of my old house! The drain actually 
amplified their calls quite effectively. And we found some Narrow-mouthed 
Toads off Old Erwin.

Added some photos to my website. Under the bird category, the only new 
additions are an American Bittern, a singing Western Meadowlark, a better 
Green Jay photo, and a Paraque. Under herps, added Broken-striped Newt, 
Western Fence Lizard, and a mostly buried American Toad. Odonate folks 
already know what I've added under that heading, I posted to that 
listserv yesterday... Most of my new additions, though, are under "the 
rest of my photos". A bunch of them are not quite fully identified, 
mostly insects. A butterfly, a few caterpillars, several beetles and 
flies and other things. Most are from beyond NC, but a few are local. 

Anyone who knows their arthropods, please take a look at 
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/otherpics.html
and see if you can supply some IDs for me; especially for the beetle from 
Irvin Farm at 
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/Mystbeet1.jpg
We're doing a species inventory for TLC there, so I'd like to nail that 
critter down. So far, I've been told that it's a Blister Beetle, probably 
genus Lytta; that from John Acorn, star of "Acorn the Nature Nut", 
Weekdays and Saturday at 8:30 AM on Animal Planet.

Thanks!

On Tue, 19 Jun 2001, shannon douglas wrote:
> 
> Does anybody know if this a typical place for House finches
> to nest or is it usually a tree with more branches than a palmetto.

House Finches seem pretty Catholic in their choice of nest sites. Our 
next-door neighbor has them in porch eaves. I've seen them in their 
native range, the arid southwest, mostly nesting in tall cacti.

> no branches and no other trees nearby, which seemingly makes fledging a
> big challange.  The first step is a dousy.  If they don't get it right the
> first time, they are going down.  My friend is quite worried about them.
> But maybe that is how it always is and they will be fine.  Anybody know?

They'll be fine. Newly fledged songbirds have so little body mass 
compared to their surface area (which is expanded greatly by the 
feathers, of course) that even if they were dropped from a 40-story 
building and didn't flap once, they'd probably survive. They just can't 
build up enough momentum to hit the ground with enough force to hurt 
themselves. Not true of bigger birds like herons, raptors, etc.; possibly 
why big birds like that make disproportionately large nests, enough that 
the fledglings can flap around and exercise their wing muscles without 
leaving the nest...

Good birding,

Josh


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

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