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W.O.W., owl influx, and bug zappers



Hi Carolinabirders,

I, too, want to thank everyone involved in Wings Over Water this past 
weekend. I had a fantastic time. A few highlights:

Meeting many Carolinabirders in person for the first time after 
exchanging e-mails with so many of them, as well as having to be 
re-introduced to John Fussell, who has one less beard than the first time 
I met him.

The Ross' Geese, which I saw very easily around noon on Friday, right 
near the edge of route 12. Between 1 and 4 PM, while John Wright and I 
were leading a group around South Pond of Pea Island, we tried three 
times to show the Ross' to our group, and every time the flock of Snow 
Geese flushed and hid behind the grass before we could locate the Ross'. 
Then, after John finally scoped the Ross' out toward the middle of the 
pool and showed everyone, and most of the group left, the flock returned 
to the edge of the highway, giving the few remaining birders close looks. 
Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em...

Shortly after this, I was birding near the old coast guard station at the 
north end of Pea Island, and spotted a Brown Creeper. In this treeless 
environment, the creeper crept along the foundation, railings, and 
shingles of the house, looking for insects. Then the creeper, tiring of 
this, flew over the dunes to explore the next promising foraging 
substrate: my boots! I've never been accused of having a wooden 
personality before, but apparently this bird thought so...

Watching the foraging behavior of Kenn Kaufman in a 7-11 late Friday 
night.

Racing to make the pelagic trip Saturday, after being released from my 
other leadership duties for the weekend. I set my alarm for 5 AM, 
thinking "I can get to Hatteras from Nag's Head in half an hour...". 
Checked the directions the next morning after leaving the motel at 5:30, 
and noticed the estimated driving time from Manteo was an hour and 40 
minutes. Uh-oh. Then realized that I had left my lunch in the fridge in 
my motel room. Oh, well. Somehow reached Hatteras in only an hour, still 
well after the boat should have left, but there she was, decks festooned 
with birders. I beeped my horn several times, screeching to a halt in a 
parking space, spraying dust and gravel. The boat was apparenly waiting 
for other folks who had reserved spaces in advance, but left less than 5 
minutes after I boarded. Survived the day on a bag of Sun Chips that just 
happened to be in my car, and a granola bar and some spring water donated 
by merciful fellow passengers.

On the pelagic, many great bird species; I'll let Brian Patteson do the 
honors. Nearly had a second species ticked off on the "landed on my foot 
list", as a female cowbird - presumably Brown-headed, although I can't 
say that I or anyone else on board checked to rule out Shiny - hitched a 
ride on the Miss Hatteras and foraged all day between our feet. The most 
exciting sighting of the trip for me, however, was not a bird, but a 
fish. While watching Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins ride our bow wave, I 
noticed that one appeared to have an extra fin. The "fin" was a slightly 
different color than the rest of the dolphin. Then it relocated to the 
dolphin's side! It was, in fact, a Remora: a fish with a sucker on its 
head, noted for hitching rides on sharks and sea turtles. Another dolphin 
showed up later in the day with two remoras attatched.

Sunday, I was left to my own devices. Acting on a tip from John Fussell, 
I started around mid-morning at the north end of Pea Island, not far from 
where I had met the creeper two days earlier. No creeper this time, but 
sure enough, a massive concentration of birds, all flying out from over 
the sound, across route 12, and settling into the vegetation between the 
dunes. Virtually all were Yellow-rumps, with a few Palm Warblers and Song 
Sparrows and one Savannah. No signs of the previously reported Common 
Eiders near the jetty, and the vicious wind made holding optics steady a 
laughable idea. A flock of Brant flew in off the ocean and settled under 
the bridge.

Next, to Pea Island, where a dozen of us couldn't find the Fulvous 
Whistling-Ducks that everyone had been seeing all weekend, even less than 
an hour before we arrived. The others left, frustrated. I ran into Eric 
Dean near the visitor's center, we talked, I spotted an immature White- 
crowned Sparrow at the feeder. Just as Eric compacted his tripod and 
prepared to leave, I spotted a flock of long-necked-looking ducks flying 
in. Sure enough, the Fulvous, 23 of them! Alas, they left again before 
the North Pond trip for that day started, but hopefully that group found 
them again later at the north end of the pond...

Made a quick stop at the northwest end of Roanoke Island, still following 
Fussell's advice, but by this time it was well after noon, apparently too 
late. I explored the trail that runs north from the base of the bridge 
connecting RI to the mainland. Only a few yellow-rumps, a flock of Cedar 
Waxwings, and a lone Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Loved the peace and quiet and 
shelter from the wind, and the trees, including the hugest Holly trees 
I've ever seen, and some large and Sapsucker-riddled Sweet Gums.

Last stop was Alligator River NWR, hoping for Rough-Legged Hawk. No luck 
there, but the ARNWR apparently still has allure for raptors: I saw 5 
species in my first 10 minutes there! Several Northern Harriers, one 
American Kestrel, a Sharp-shinned Hawk (the first of a few), a few Turkey 
Vultures, and a buteo that had me excited for a minute, but turned out to 
be a Red-tail. I wrapped up my adventures by joining the first stage of 
the Owl Prowl, scanning for Short-ears. We saw only a surprising number 
of bats for the late date, which were feeding on a much larger surprising 
number of mosquitoes for the late date, which were feeding on us. After 
that, I headed home.

Speaking of owls, we might have another good year on our hands. A post 
from a wildlife rehabilitator in Minneapolis mentions a large number of 
Snowy Owls being turned in half-starved, with smaller numbers of Boreal 
and Saw-Whet and one Great Gray. Snowies have already been reported in 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and one even in New Jersey, 
with an unconfirmed report from the CBBT! Plus a Boreal in Boston, and 
Saw-Whets being banded in numbers as far south as Virginia...

Last thing: the note below comes from the notorious Leps-L listserv, 
about the real impact of bug-zappers. I imagine most Carolinabirders long 
ago found out that these horrible contraptions were bogus and threw 
theirs away (or never bought them), but if anyone still owns one or knows 
someone who does, read the abstract below from a published research 
article.

Good birding,

Josh

------------------------------------------------------------ 
Subject: Zapper abstract and musings --
From: "Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX" <Norbert.Kondla@gems3.gov.bc.ca>
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 12:44:09 -0800

Thx to Chris Schmidt for sharing this abstract from the Ent News article:
"Our survey of insects electrocuted during routine use of electric insect
traps revealed only 31 biting flies, a minute proportion (0.22%) of the
13,789 total insects counted. In contrast, species from 12 orders and more
than 104 nontarget insect families, including 1,868 predators and parasites
(13.5%) and 6,670 nonbiting aquatic insects (48.4%) were destroyed. The
heavy toll on nontarget insects and the near absence of biting flies in
catches suggests that electric insect traps are worthless for biting fly
reduction -and probably are counterproductive - to homeowners and other
consumers."
Anybody out there who really cares about insect conservation and with the
intestinal fortitude to take on the zapper industry ? :-) Is there a
government agency out there that wants to deal with a real conservation
issue ? :-) Is there a conservation organization out there that wants to
lobby on the basis of hard data rather than fanciful imaginings ? :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
Forest Ecosystem Specialist, Ministry of Environment
845 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 1H3
Phone 250-365-8610
Mailto:Norbert.Kondla@gems3.gov.bc.ca       
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca
------------------------------------------------------------ 


 
Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

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