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Re: B&W Warbler, Waxwings at Mason Farm



When I first moved into my current home in 1969, we had a Black and White
warbler singing at our house for most of the summer. The bird returned for
the following 2 years, but nothing has been seen since. We live about 1 mile
west of University Lake.

-- Helmut C Mueller

409 Moonridge Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Phone: 919-942-4937

Permanent email address: hmueller@email.unc.edu


> From: Shantanu Phukan <phukan@email.unc.edu>
> Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 10:50:48 -0400 (EDT)
> To: Carolina Birds <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
> Subject: B&W Warbler, Waxwings at Mason Farm
> 
> I went out to Mason Farm this morning for what I thought would be a
> miserably hot and buggy walk with not much to show for it and was happily
> proven very wrong. The bird activity was absolutely incredible with much
> song and even better sightings, though my Scarlet Tanager sighting drought
> still continues as they insist on taunting me and then flying off.
> 
> Anyway, the best and most surprising sighting was that of a singing Black
> and White Warbler near milepost 16 or 17, in other words right around
> where the Kentucky likes to elude us all. I followed it as it foraged for
> a good fifteen minutes and at one point had it in view with a female
> redstart and a yellow billed cuckoo. I dont ever recall seeing a Black and
> White in the Piedmont in early June and am wondering if the bird is
> nesting or if it is a failed nester sojourning in less than ideal
> habitat.
> Any information on BW Warbler breeding in the Triangle?
> 
> The other intriguing sighting was a small flock of three Cedar Waxwings
> that were acting very unlike they normally act. They flew into the low
> Willows along the ditch (where the Chats usually are). It looked to me as
> if it was a pair chasing off an intruder, or an unsuccessful suitor
> insisting on a menage. There were no fruiting trees nearby. People might
> keep an ear open for beeding waxwings in the farm.
> 
> The third intriguing thing was a series of Bobwhite calls I heard around
> milepost 24 (where the trail splits). I have only once seen Bobwhite at
> Mason Farm and that was 4 years ago, so I had a hard time believing my
> ears. THe call was repeated a few times and then what I heard was just the
> BOB part of it, minus the WHITE part. THere were lots of Chats singing in
> the vicinityand I am now wondering if what Iheard was a Chat doing a
> Bobwhite imitation. Have people had this experience before and are Chats
> known to actively imitate other birds or is it the case that they simply
> have a very large repertory of their own and this, combined with wishful
> thinking conjured up a Bobwhite for me this morning?
> 
> THe last thing of note was an Osprey circling for along time over the
> ponds  in the Golf Course as one drives out of the parking area. I have
> never seen an Osprey at Mason Farm and the golfing ponds ahve always
> seemed barren of all life, so I guess it was somewhat heartening to see
> that the Osprey disagreed. But then it made a swoop into the pond and
> since it came up empty taloned maybe the ponds are barren afterall, or
> nearly so.
> 
> Also seen were two singing Redstarts, a Louisiana Waterthrush, a Belted
> Kngfisher and a Prothonotary Warbler where the dirt road crosses the
> creek. What a bonanza--and not just for me, but also for the flies that
> feasted on me.
> 
> So, one last question for the locals. Where would you suggest I go to end
> the Scarlet Tanager drought (and yes, I have tried the hill in the NC
> Botanic Garden as well as the woods along Haw river at Bynum and while
> both yielded singing birds, the foliage was too thick to see anything).
> 
> Shantanu Phukan
> 
> *****************************************************
> 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
> *****************************************************
>