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On the way to Beaufort, water in the snow, and obnoxious finches



On Mon, 24 Jan 2000, George & Judy Halleron wrote:
> 
> Anyone else know good places on I 26?

The Orangeburg Sod Farms are off of I-26, and might be worth a visit in 
the winter. None of the shorebirds that occur there in migration will be 
present, but sod farms further west (including, unless I'm mistaken, the 
ones in Hendersonville NC) often attract wintering tundra breeders like 
Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs. Horned Larks are probably there 
somewhere, and almost certainly a variety of raptors. I visited 
Orangeburg for the first time on my way home from Guadeloupe on December 
31 (never got around to finishing that story...). Unfortunately, the 
office was closed for the holidays, and I did not want to drive into the 
fields without permission. I birded from the edge of the fields, and from 
the road through an adjacent construction site where it looked like an 
office building was going up. Highlights were a Loggerhead Shrike, a 
Northern Harrier, and a staggeringly large flock of Savannah Sparrows (at 
least 50, probably more than twice that). Gee, those HBSP longspurs last 
winter were hanging around with a flock of Savannahs, weren't they?

I'm afraid I have too much work to make it to Beaufort next weekend, the 
furthest afield I can hope for is the Butner Gamelands. Or maybe I'll buy 
some crickets at the petstore and go see if the PS Flycatcher is hungry. 
Y'all have fun without me...

Back here in Durham, once I dumped the ice out of my birdbath and 
replaced it with water, it was more popular than it ever has been, even 
in the heat of the summer! Everyone should remember that birds don't seem 
to get the idea of eating snow for water, so that with all the liquid 
water frozen, thawing out your birdbaths could be very important, and 
may bring some new species to your yard during our unprecedented white- 
washing.

Like everyone else, I had a flurry of activity this morning around the 
feeders. A huge mob of obnoxious American Goldfinches moved in and took 
over the cylinder feeders, chasing off the usual Chickadees and Titmice 
that tried to visit; the usuals had to settle for the hopper feeders, 
which for some reason didn't draw the Goldfinches nearly as much. 
Yesterday's Purple Finch, one of the few species not intimidated by the 
Goldfinches, returned with another male and maybe a female (didn't see 
her too well). Also, my yard's first Fox Sparrow showed up. However, the 
Pine Siskins, which were feeding in the Sweet Gums above the yard months 
ago, still have yet to discover the feeders, and I remain jealously 
lacking Red-breasted Nuthatches.

Good birding,

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology

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