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urban birds



Hi Carolinabirders,

I note from a scan of the listservs that some Carolinabirders are having
fun far and wide. Jack Peachey and Paul Rogers apparently photographed a
Key West Quail-Dove down in the Florida Keys, while Mike Tove is signing
his books on a pelagic trip up in Massachusetts. No other new rarities;
the Eurasian Greenfinch is still being seen at Bombay Hook NWR in
Delaware, no indication as to its origin yet.

The front page of Jack Siler's website led me to a NYT article on a
contreversy in Connecticut over Canada Geese, between people who think
they're a nusiance and want them eliminated, and folks who are defending
them. There's even a "Coalition to Prevent the Destruction of Canada
Geese". Sounds to me a little like the misguided nitwits who formed non-
profit groups to defend the bird-habitat-destroying Eucalyptus trees in
California... Anyway, the story's on-line at
http://birdingonthe.net/includes/problemgeese.html

Another news story about feral birds, via BIRDCHAT:
http://listserv.arizona.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0206c&L=birdchat&F=&S=&P=7613
concerns an alarming decline of (don't laugh) House Sparrows in London.
The discussion of the issue on BIRDCHAT has turned from wishing it would
happen in the US, to wondering if the House Sparrow's decline might be a
signal of something bad coming, like the raptors disappearing during the
DDT era.

Had some urban bird encounters of my own today. In a parking lot in Chapel
Hill, just outside A Southern Season (was getting sugar-free chocolate for
my insulin-resistant wife), had a good time watching a Northern
Mockingbird frolic inches away from a plastic replica Peregrine Falcon.
Maybe it works on the pigeons, but not on that mocker... Then saw a real
raptor, a Red-tailed Hawk, plunge into the mowed grass just inches from
the curb on the south side of Main Street in Durham, several yards west of
the Domino's Pizza at Buchanan Blvd.

Back at home, the hummingbird(s?) not only is visiting the feeder
regularly, but now has found the Cardinal Creeper I planted in the
windowbox too. The plant is something my wife brought home, apparently a
hybrid of Cypressvine (Ipomoea quamoclit), a non-invasive Mexican species,
and Scarlet Morning Glory (I. coccinea), which is an exotic problem
species in some areas. I can't find any instances described of the hybrid
(scientifically described as I. x multifida) behaving invasively or
otherwise causing problems, but I'm keeping a close eye on it... Only
other house events of note were bugs, a Grapevine Beetle (Pelidnota
punctata) at the porch light last night, and some kind of little gray bee
carrying a round green package into the drain-holes under our
aforementioned windowbox. No idea of the identity of the bee or the round
green thing it was carrying, or of the bee's purpose in the windowbox.

While I'm on the bug topic, the same windowbox as the Cardinal Creeper
also has something that looks like Lantana but will all yellow flowers,
not sure of the ID, which has attracted Silver-spotted Skipper and some
kind of duskywing-looking critter. A few identical plants outside a garden
shop at that same shopping center in Chapel Hill today had a Pearl
Crescent and a folded-wing skipper of some kind.

Good birding,

Josh


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

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