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Re: Suburban Barreds; Crane update?



> Hmmmmmm. THis makes me think more about the real impacts of feeding birds.
> Could bird feeding be concentrating passerines in predictable locations,
> to the point that hunting them becomes profitable for an owl in ways that
> it isn't out in the countryside? Or is it that the suburbs have different
> common passerine species, starlings and mockingbirds and sparrows and
> such, as opposed to the more wary and less catchable chickadees,
> woodpeckers, etc. in rural habitats? Guess we have to wait for more
> research...

Although I lived in Washington State for five years and am a certified Owl
Nut, I didn't travel much, so the only Spotted Owl I saw was a bird that
turned up in the seedy downtown area of the seedy town I lived in.  
Picture a few sorry maples surrounded by parking garages and neon, and
bathed in the 24 hour glow of streetlights, with cars speeding on both
sides of the median.  Pavement everywhere except for a few patches of bare
dirt and cigarette butts.

And starlings.  Twenty-five hundred starlings roosting in two blocks.

So the owl was a local celebrity (5 blocks east and I could have had him
on my yard list, darn it) for a week until the state wildlife department
removed him or her to the remote woods in the remote countryside, where
perhaps he was better off, but certainly without the easy pickings he had
in downtown Everett.  

I suspect it was a first year bird.  In New England winters, Barred Owls
show up in "inappropriate" areas every winter, nearly always young birds,
and they depart in spring for more appropriate areas, never to return (as
I understand it, all the Strix owls are *very* site-faithful as adults).

Oops, this is only marginally about carolina birds, I guess.  Anybody seen
any Little Gulls on the Outer Banks this year?  I've got a Little Gull
itch, and can't decide if I can scratch it better from shore or with Brian
Patteson.

See (some of) you in Nag's Head,

Chris Hill
chill@coastal.edu