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RFI: grassland management; trust fund battle continues



Hi Carolinabirders,

I've been consulting with some folks in the Triangle who have some land to
manage. Part of this land is, and is planned to remain, meadow habitat.
The plan I heard today is to mow the meadows every spring and fall. This
land is not far from Dairyland Road with its Grasshopper Sparrows and
(formerly, as far as we know) Dickcissels. Does anyone know how the land
at Anilorac Farm is managed, or was when the above birds were nesting
there? How about the mowing regime at the Voice of America sites where the
Henslow's Sparrows nest? Or any other sites which have been successfully
managed for nesting grassland bird species? (management of grasslands for
insects and wildflowers is also of interest)

Just heard good news politically, that the NC Senate has proposed a budget
which preserves funding for the Natural Heritage Trust Fund, the Parks and
Recreation Trust Fund, and most of the Clean Water Management Trust Fund.
Now they just have to convince the NC House, which attempted to raid these
trust funds to balance the overall state budget, to go along. Please write
to your senators and thank them if they helped to protect the trust funds,
and more importantly write to your representatives and ask them to support
the senate's trust-fund-friendly (and thus bird-habitat-friendly) budget.
Phone numbers and e-mail addresses of NC state senators and
representatives were already posted to Carolinabirds and are in the
archives at
http://www.ibiblio.org/pardo/birds/current/msg00686.html
(among other archives)

Between last weekend's rainshowers, my friend Tracy Feldman and I visited
the beaver marsh behind the defunct mega-K-mart in Durham. An adult
Red-headed Woodpecker and a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks were perched on
three widely separated snags in the marsh. All three were fluffed out,
with wings half-spread, drying out after the rain. Then, last night, while
Airlie and I were trying (unsuccessfully) to collect planarians from
Tracy's pond, a trio of Green Herons flushed from a (nest?) tree nearby
and flew across the pond squawking.

Good birding,

Josh


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

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