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Winter birds departing?



Hi Carolinabirders,

First off, I have to apologize for my last post going to the entire 
listserv. My snide comments were meant for Sandy Cash's ears alone...

Speaking of Sandy, in reply to his post on Fish Crows, they generally 
outnumber American Crows on Duke's West Campus for most of the warmer 
months. No water nearby unless you count Duke Gardens' 
exotic-duck-infested ponds. Funny thing is, East Campus has pretty much 
only American Crows.

Meanwhile, remember when I noted on a rainy day last week how I still had 
20-plus Purple Finches and a Fox Sparrow around? Well, have not seen 
either species since. I do still have plenty of Juncos, many of whom were 
foraging on our roof today (a Carolina Wren was also up there, picking 
through the gutters). Still a few White-throats, too.

And when I switched back to peanut-flavored suet after a couple of weeks 
with other flavors, a Brown Creeper - not seen in the yard for a couple 
of weeks - suddenly appeared. Coincidence? Could be... I enjoyed watching 
the Creeper sunbathe this morning too: at the base of a tree trunk, in 
the sun, with its tail and both wings spread as wide as possible, totally 
motionless for several minutes. Even all spread out like that, it was 
very well camoflaged; my housemate couldn't see it until she walked 
outside and scared it into motion...

Good birding!

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology

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