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Night birds, fish crows, and bloodsuckers



Hi C-birders,

I led a bunch of Duke students on a nocturnal trip last night. We started 
at the Butner Gamelands just before sunset; White-throated Sparrows were 
in shockingly short supply, the bushes here are usually heavily laden 
with them and their alarm calls make hearing anything else very 
difficult, but not last night! We enjoyed lots of overflying waterfowl 
and a few raptors while we waited for darkness, most notably a Cooper's 
Hawk that nearly captured a Mockingbird nearby.

The American Woodcock started "peent"ing not long after sunset. We had a 
large group, over 20 people, and so had to split up; but at least two 
groups had good views of woodcocks in flight, and the other two at least 
heard them.

We next proceeded down into the swamp, and were almost immediately 
rewarded with a serenade from two Barred Owls disputing a territorial 
boundary. The bird to the north of us was giving an ascending series of 
"haw-haw-haw-haw-haw" notes, while the individual to the south kept 
giving a single, long "Hoooooooaaa!" The second individual later provided 
the more typical "Who-cooks-for-you?" call. We heard no sign of Great 
Horned or Eastern Screech-owls, but for consolation had a Beaver swim in 
our spotlights a few times close by and slap its tail on the water in 
alarm.

We closed the night by visiting a salamander breeding pond in the Duke 
Forest, where we saw one adult Spotted Salamander, several egg masses of 
the same species, lots of larvae which already had forelegs and so were 
probably Marbled Salamanders which hatched from eggs laid last fall, and 
assorted aquatic invertebrates including a probable hellgramite with big 
nasty mandibles.

Back to birds: for those into signs of spring, Fish Crows were passing 
high over my neighborhood several times yesterday and at least once 
today, presumably riding the warm weather back inland from their coastal 
wintering areas.

However, spring isn't all good news: I was bitted by mosquitoes several 
times at the Butner Gamelands yesterday evening, and today my housemate's 
dog showed up with his first tick of 2000. Better start buying repellent 
before the prices go up for summer...

And a last note, for those like me who don't want winter to leave so 
soon: the brief rain shower today brought a new high of 9 Purple Finches 
in to my feeders this afternoon, and during a dryer stretch, while I was 
reading in my backyard hammock, a Red-breasted Nuthatch put in several 
appearances and sang once.

Good birding,

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology

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