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Gambling on birds?



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/