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New Hope Crk surprise



I shuffled out of bed this morning and out on the trail at Johnston Tract
preserve on New Hope Creek to see if I could locate any just-arrived
Waterthrushes or Yellow Throated Warblers. While I faile dto find either
bird I was surprised by a pair of Hooded Mergansers on the creek. I have
been on this creek several times and have never seen any waterfowl and
never been surprised since the creek is so small. It is true that it was
humming right along today after the rains but still I was very surprised
to see mergansers on it.
A little furtehr on I kept hearing a very vocal pair of Kingfishers and
they seemed to be flying kind of funny in that they kept to the crowns of
big trees. I had never seen this behaviour and immediately thought that
they must be courting. Sure enough in a few minutes the female landed
high up in a Tulip Tree and the male mounted her cackling all the
while. I left them flying arounhd excitedly up there, higher than I have
ever seen a Kingfisher fly. Looking around the creek I discovered that at
one point it has very high and steep banks with a hole in it and was
really tempted to think that if I were a kingfisher that is where I woould
lay my clutch. This hole was pretty much right above the tulip tree where
they mated and I plan on keeping an eye on it to see if indeed this is the
nest. All in all a great morning even though no warblers seem to have
showed up yet.

Shantanu Phukan

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SHANTANU PHUKAN
Lecturer in Urdu-Hindi & Indian Literature
University of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill
Curriculum in Asian Studies
Alumni Hall 413C
Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599

phukan@email.unc.edu
919-962-6825
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