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Wood Thrush Behavior
- To: Carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Wood Thrush Behavior
- From: mjwestphal <mjwestphal@unca.edu>
- Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 13:41:51 -0400
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
I'm curious about what my resident Wood Thrush is up to. In spring it sang,
it seems, from dawn to dusk, and kept on going well into the season. There
are several Wood Thrushes in the neighborhood, so he had a lot of competition
to keep his patch safe. Finally, he quieted down in June, but now for the
last week or so he's been back at it again. I can't imagine he's looking to
nest again, so what's he up to? I've heard the theory about singing based on
the amount of daylight hours and that's possible, I guess. Anyone have any
other ideas? Whatever, I'm enjoying his serenade and always miss it when he
stops.
This neighborhood is a wooded development with about 300 houses on 1 to
2 acre lots about 5 miles from Hendersonville and Wood Thrushes abound every
year. I don't know what their nesting success is in this obviously broken
patch of forest, but they keep coming back in good numbers every year. With
the National Forest so close (about five miles), what's the big attraction
with subdivisions? If they were here before development (about 10 to 15 years
ago)and just stayed on, it sure seems like they must be doing okay despite the
Blue Jays, raccoons, cats, squirrels, etc. Or could they be forest spillover
year after year? Anyway, it's made me think that there must be more to Wood
Thrush decline in some regions besides forest fragmentation. I really don't
know, though.
Marilyn Westphal
Hendersonville, NC
mjwestphal@unca.edu