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Winter stragglers? And where the Carolinas stand



Hi Carolinabirders,

It may be a little early to start calling our winter visitors 
"stragglers". Looking at the Triangle checklist, Evening Grosbeaks 
shouldn't start trailing off until early April (of course, in my 
neighborhood they haven't arrived yet...). Same for Purple Finches. Pine 
Siskins are rated as "uncommon" through mid-April. Juncos are supposed to 
be declining in number from "abundant" to "common" around now, but still 
remaining numerous until next month sometime. Golden-crowned Kinglets 
should be leaving around now, and Ruby-crowns in April, but as we all 
know by now there haven't been more than a few in the Triangle for the 
last few months. Red-breasted Nuthatch goes from "uncommon" to 
"occasional" in early April. Fox Sparrows are supposed to start 
decreasing in number around now.

So we should be able to expect at least another week of our winter 
friends. I had a Fox Sparrow and 23 Purple Finches around the feeders 
during the rain on Monday. I've been filling the feeders much more often 
since finch numbers picked up, I suspect they're consuming more sunflower 
than even the squirrels! Many bird species seem to come and go, but the 
finch flock seems to hang around most of the day, only leaving when some 
marauding mammal - squirrel, human, dog - scares them up into the tree 
canopy. When the mammals are gone, the finches usually return in 10 
minutes or so. This morning, the feeders were virtually all depleted, 
even the suet; something tells me that the local raccoons like the 
cherry-flavored suet cakes, there was nearly a full block in there 
yesterday!

Below is something I found on the Michigan listserv. It's a list of 
states in order of the number of bird species on each state's committee- 
approved list. It was posted originally as a quiz; have you ever wondered 
which states had the most and least bird species, or where North and 
South Carolina rank? Answers are below...

Good birding,

Josh

-----------------------------------------
Subject: trivia questions answers
"Bruce M. Bowman" <bbowman@umich.edu> 
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 00:23:41 -0500

Trivia questions about ABA species records by state

1. What are the top four states, 1, 2, 3, and 4?
2. What are the bottom four states, 47, 48, 49, and 50?
3. Where does Michigan rank in 1 to 50?

This is just for fun.  Don't post your answers.  You can 
look up the answers in the ABA 1998 List Report if you 
want, but I'll post them in a day or so.  [They're below.]

-----------------------------------------------------------

Answers

As you can see from the list below (compiled from the ABA's 
1998 List Report), the top four states are Texas, California, 
Arizona, and New Mexico.  The bottom four are Hawaii (#50), 
West Virginia (#49), Kentucky (#48), and Vermont (#47).  (Hawaii 
isn't in the ABA Count Region, however.)

Where does Michigan rank?  It's tied with four other states for 
#26-#30, i.e., below middle.  So you thought you were having a 
LOT of fun?  Nope.  You're only having sort of a good time.

Bruce


      American Birding Association
        Species Records by State

    State                 Abbr    Total

 1. TEXAS                  TX      610
    CALIFORNIA             CA      610
 3. ARIZONA                AZ      525
 4. NEW MEXICO             NM      500
 5. FLORIDA                FL      480
    OREGON                 OR      480
 7. NEVADA                 NV      470
    MASSACHUSETTS          MA      470
 9. COLORADO               CO      465
10. WASHINGTON             WA      455
    NEW YORK               NY      455
    KANSAS                 KS      455
13. OKLAHOMA               OK      450
    ALASKA                 AK      450
    LOUISIANA              LA      450
16. NEW JERSEY             NJ      435
    NORTH CAROLINA         NC      435
18. NEBRASKA               NE      430
19. MINNESOTA              MN      425
    VIRGINIA               VA      425
21. ILLINOIS               IL      420
22. ALABAMA                AL      415
    MAINE                  ME      415
    MARYLAND               MD      415
    SOUTH CAROLINA         SC      415
26. SOUTH DAKOTA           SD      410
    WYOMING                WY      410
    MICHIGAN               MI      410
    WISCONSIN              WI      410
    OHIO                   OH      410
31. RHODE ISLAND           RI      405
    UTAH                   UT      405
33. MISSOURI               MO      400
    MONTANA                MT      400
    IOWA                   IA      400
    GEORGIA                GA      400
    PENNSYLVANIA           PA      400
    MISSISSIPPI            MS      400
    CONNECTICUT            CT      400
    INDIANA                IN      400
41. DELAWARE               DE      395
    ARKANSAS               AR      395
43. TENNESSEE              TN      390
44. NORTH DAKOTA           ND      385
45. NEW HAMPSHIRE          NH      375
    IDAHO                  ID      375
47. VERMONT                VT      365
48. KENTUCKY               KY      350
49. WEST VIRGINIA          WV      340
50. HAWAII                 HI      285

-----------------------------------------

Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology

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