[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Back on Lake Murray; Red-cockaded tip



Hi Carolinabirders,

I'm back in Irmo, getting ready to give a talk on dragonflies to the
Columbia Audubon Society Tuesday night. Lake Murray was almost
uncomfortably warm yesterday, but the birds still look quite wintry: the
usual big raft of American Coots, many Bufflehead, and several Common
Loons. The loons are starting to show a little breeding plumage though,
and the Buffleheads were flirting and frolicking. The one change from my
last visit here in January is that all the Aythya ducks (Ring-necked,
scaup, etc) are gone. Saw what looked like a few distant Purple Martins
earlier this morning, but too far to be sure. Landbirds are all singing,
mostly titmice and Carolina Wrens, but heard a snatch of what sounded like
a Yellow-throated Warbler yesterday...

On Sun, 10 Mar 2002, Bev Hudson wrote:
>
> Obviously we didn't see the coveted Red-cockaded altho' many trees are
> marked.  We did arrive by 7 AM, and have heard that to see them you have
> to be there early or late in the afternoon when they leave or arrive
> "home."  We had not planned to go to Sandhills, so we had not done our
> homework on voice, pecking rhythms etc.
>
> We would really appreciate information on finding these birds for we
> hope to return in the near future.  We also plan to go during  the week
> when the rangers are on duty.

My best looks were in early summer. I visited the Croatan NF the June
before last during an impromptu Big Dayy, and followed the directions in
John Fussell's book to a Red-cockaded colony. At that point, they had
chicks to feed, and so were going to and fro all day, not just morning and
evening. More recently, having learned more or less what they sound like,
I've seen birds away from the holes at Weymouth Woods and the Green Swamp.

> We wonder why with so many wonderful pools there are so few waterfowl.

Time of year, maybe. Many of the waterfowl species arrive in November and
start wandering again in January; I've heard that Mattamuskeet mostly
clears out by late winter, and certainly the numbers at Pea and Bodie
Island peak in November and go down from there. It may also be pond
management; many places like the Triangle's Lake Wheeler used to have lots
of wintering waterfowl, but numbers have declined to very few due to
introduced Grass Carp eating all of the water plants.

Good birding,

Josh


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

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