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Re: Missing Blackbirds Found



Congrats on the "Big Day!" I thought there were a few grackles missing on
the Santee CBC....now we know.

;-)

gary

Gary Phillips
Conway, SC
 Zone 8
walela@sccoast.net
"Never has the earth been so lovely nor the sun so bright, as today..."
(Nikinapi)
-----Original Message-----
From: BILL HILTON JR Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
<hilton@hiltonpond.org>
To: CAROLINA BIRDS <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
Date: Thursday, January 03, 2002 5:19 PM
Subject: Missing Blackbirds Found


>
>You know all those blackbirds that were missing from so many
>Carolinas Christmas Bird Counts this year? I found them. They came to
>celebrate the winter's first snowfall at Hilton Pond Center for
>Piedmont Natural History near York SC.
>
>While everybody else has been reporting Purple Finches, Pine Siskins,
>Red-breasted Nuthatches, and other northern migrants, I was overrun
>today by voracious Common Grackles and their kin.
>
>The good news is that I managed to trap 108 of those grackles today,
>which made for lots of bites and scratches--to say nothing of the
>noise! The number of captures is significant, because not since 1984
>have I banded more than 100 grackles in a whole calendar year. (Back
>then, the property was much more open and probably more attractive to
>various blackbirds.)
>
>What was especially exciting was that mixed in with the grackles were
>Red-winged Blackbirds and Rusty Blackbirds, of which I trapped three
>each. Over the past 20 years of banding, I'd captured just 17
>red-wings, but the rusties were a prize since only one had ever been
>banded locally.
>
>Photos will appear in a future edition of "This Week at Hilton Pond."
>
>After a sub-par banding year in 2001, it looks like 2002 is off to a
>grand start!
>
>
>With best wishes,
>
>BILL
>--
>
>BILL HILTON JR., "The Piedmont Naturalist"
>Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
>1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA
>hilton@hiltonpond.org, (803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845
>
>Please visit our web sites at http://www.hiltonpond.org and
>http://www.rubythroat.org
>
>"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to
>watch the sunset." BHjr.
>