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patriotic birding; Will Suitt early amphibians



Hi Carolinabirders,

Peeked at Audubon magazine this morning over breakfast (I got a free
membership in return for giving Wake Audubon a dragonfly talk and leading
a field trip). They reported how a certain football team, as part of their
new stadium-building project, was restoring a half-mile stretch of
wetlands along a river which had previously been channelized and covered
over with concrete. The team? The New England Patriots, who are playing in
the Super Bowl on Sunday. Just so you all know who to root for...

My usual naturalist friends Cait Coberly and Tracy Feldman, plus
lichenologist Becky Yahr, accompanied me along the Will Suitt railroad on
Sunday afternoon. Becky wanted to refresh her stale birding skills, and we
had plenty of fodder with abundant Tufted Titmice, Rufous-sided Towhees
and Golden-crowned Kinglets. One Fox Sparrow and one Brown Creeper were
the most noteworthy sightings. No sign of my Common Goldeneye from last
week; in fact, no ducks at all, except about 5 distant Aythyas
(Ring-necks, I think) behind a large raft of loafing Ring-billed Gulls.
And no other waterbirds but a Great Blue Heron or two. However, we ran out
of daylight and so turned around before reaching the tip of the peninsula,
maybe there were more birds out there.

Meanwhile, Becky and Tracy identified lots of lichens and plants for us; I
especially liked Ludwigia's little cube-shaped seed pods, dispensing
seeds through a little hole like a salt shaker. At one point, we heard the
slowed-down call of a cold-sounding Chorus Frog (Pseudacris triseriata);
Cait then flushed what we assumed was the same frog into a puddle, but it
turned out to be a Cricket Frog (Acris gryllus). And while we were
watching that, a larval Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum) swam into
view! Amphibians in January, I must be in the south... And since we were
out until dark, we stopped to sky-gaze with my spotting scope; I never
realized this before, but 20x is plenty of magnification to clearly see a
few moons around Jupiter, and 60x gave us a nice look at Saturn's rings.
We shared the view with a wildlife officer who was nearby, busting a crew
of ATVers who illegally drove on the Gamelands.

Good birding,

Josh


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

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