[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Gambling on birds?
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Gambling on birds?
- From: Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>
- Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 16:51:15 -0400 (EDT)
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Hi Carolinabirders,
A little off-topic here, but this afternoon I noticed two posts at the
recent end of the BIRDCHAT archives, either of which could lead to a fun
out-of-state birding trip for the lucky recipient. I'm guessing that many
c-birders will be interested...
First, the National Audubon Society is having a drawing to award a free
one-week session at their Audubon Birding Camp on Hog Island in Maine.
They normally charge $850.00 per session! The session consists mainly of
field trips to coastal wetlands, inland forests, and seabird nesting
colonies offshore. There are also discussions of bird photography and
gardening for birds, as well as the usual subjects of identification,
migration, conservation, etc. The species that nest up there include
Atlantic Puffin, Black Guillemot, Roseate Tern, and many species of
warblers.
To register for the drawing, you first have to take the Watchlist Bird
Quiz. Don't worry, your score on the quiz does not determine your
eligibility for the prize, and the questions are mostly pretty easy.
Visit http://www.audubon.org/bird/watch/quiz/index.html to give it a try.
When you register for the drawing at the end, they also ask with which
(if any) nature center or sanctuary you are affiliated; the center or
sanctuary with the most people registered will apparently have the chance
to buy the voluminous "Birds of North America" series, normally $2275.00,
at half price. The Duke Bio Sci library has a copy of BNA for anyone who
wants to come in and investigate...
The second, and even more exciting, possibility is a sort of "birding
lottery" offered by Texas Parks and Wildlife. Called "The Texas
Birdwatching Bonanza", you can enter as many times as you like; each
entry costs $10.00. Most of the money will go to funding TPW avian
conservation projects. The Grand Prize is a three-part guided birding
tour through Texas: a January trip through the Rio Grande Valley, guided
by noted birder and conservationist Ted Eubanks; an April trip along the
Upper Texas Coast and through the Pineywoods, guided by Bob Behrstock, who
also knows his butterflies and dragonflies, and is a really nice guy, as
I found out at "Dragonfly Days"; and a September trip to Big Bend and the
Davis Mountains, guided by Greg Lasley, who is the Texas editor for North
American Birds, secretary of the Texas Bird Records Committee, and a
frequent tour-leader for VENT. There are six unspecified runner-up prizes
which appear to be free weekend stays in Texas, possibly with shorter
birding tours involved; the rules don't quite make this clear...
A more extensive description of the grand prize, the official rules, and
the official mail-in entry form are available at
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/bonanza/
Back on the local front, Duke-based birders might want to hang out in
front of the Bio Sci building over the next week or so. A pair of
Carolina Chickadees is nesting in a hole in one of the 4 ornamental
(Yaupon?) Hollies in the brick planters; to be specific, the northeast
planter. I saw a pair of birds investigating the hole before I left for
Texas, but saw no sign of nesting during the next few days. However,
yesterday morning I saw them entering and leaving the hole. Then, in the
early afternoon, I heard the parents scolding desperately; a young woman
was smoking a cigarette while sitting on the edge of the planter,
apparently too close to the hole for them to enter and feed the chicks. I
spotted one parent with a green caterpillar in its beak, chattering away.
I asked her to move and told her why, then had to shoo a postdoc away who
overheard and was trying to find the hole. As soon as he backed up, the
parents each entered, fed the chicks, and left. No idea how close the
critters are to fledging. They've picked a high-traffic area to nest in,
but apparently it hasn't stopped them so far...
Good birding!
Josh
Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology
jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/