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Winter stragglers? And where the Carolinas stand
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Winter stragglers? And where the Carolinas stand
- From: Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>
- Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 11:58:12 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
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/