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The Condor's Shadow and the Giant Carolina Swamp-Eater



Hi Carolinabirders,

On Wed, 8 Nov 2000, frank rheindt wrote:
> 
> the late Joshua Stuart Rose and I went on a quick birding sortie

Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I would say Frank was 
the late one, given that he arrived to pick me up one hour later than we 
originally planned!

Additions to Frank's list: we found about 5 American Wigeon at the 
Poplar Point settling ponds, in with roughly 30 Mallards and a pair of 
Wood Ducks. A parks employee who stopped to talk to us, I think his 
name was Sean Woody, said they were the first Wigeon he had ever seen 
there. We were hoping for Redhead, a species Frank hasn't seen yet; we 
figure to try Lakes Crabtree, Wheeler, Brier Creek, etc. in Wake County 
on Saturday morning, unless somebody has a better idea... Also had an 
immature Bald Eagle from Ebenezer. Nothing of interest at Horton's Pond, 
and Old Hope Valley Farm was heavily populated with hunters; we weren't 
wearing anything bright orange, so we moved on. Noticed while we were 
at OHVF, though, a sign about some kind of tower construction. They 
aren't constructing one of those migrant-killing 1000-foot cel-phone 
towers there, are they?

On the election front, many congratulations to Wake County voters for 
approving the open space bond issue! I tend to think that preservation of 
land through local action, in the long term, will do much more to benefit 
wildlife that any president we can elect. And for those who are sore that 
the best man didn't win, I bet Mr. Nader will be willing to run again in 
four years... Also happy to note that at least two members of the League 
of Conservation Voters' "Dirty Dozen" (see http://www.lcv.org/) lost 
their US Senate campaigns, and a third one is on the verge of joining 
them. Our one in-state member of the LCV's hit list won, but overall, I'd 
say the birds fared pretty well in the voting.

Two items with Carolina relevance: First, an announcement about a talk at 
UNC-Chapel Hill this evening, entitled "The Condor's Shadow: Loss and 
Recovery of Wildlife in America?" by a conservation biologist with a 
background in ornithology. And second, an RFI from a Japanese filmmaker 
asking about a bird called the "Giant Carolina Swamp-Eater". I've been in 
my share of swamps around here, but I haven't ticked that one off on the 
life list yet...

Good birding,

Josh

> David Wilcove, a conservation biologist with Environmental Defense, will
> be speaking in Chapel Hill on Nov. 8.  The announcement follows.  David
> is a top-notch Conservation Biologist.  Many of you who study birds
> and/or habitat fragmentation will know David's seminal work on habitat
> fragmentation and cowbird parasitism.  He has also published recently on
> threats to biodiversity (in Bioscience ) and on conservation hotspots in
> the US (in Science).
>
> On Wednesday, November 8, the Carolina Environmental Program and the
> Ackland Art Museum at UNC-Chapel Hill will be cosponsoring a FREE
> lecture by Dr. David Wilcove, senior ecologist with the Environmental
> Defense office in Washington, D.C.  David is author of the recent book
> "The Condor's Shadow: Loss and Recovery of Wildlife in America?".  He
> will speak at 5:30 p.m. in the Hanes Art Center Auditorium -- located
> on South Columbia Street, just south of Franklin Street on the campus
> of UNC-Chapel Hill.  A free reception and book signing will follow his
> lecture at the Ackland Art Museum.
>
> David's talk is being presented in conjuction with the current Ackland
> exhibition "Andy Warhol: Endangered Species" -- a series of ten color
> screenprints created in 1983 that portray endangered animals from
> around the world including: Siberian tiger, San Francisco silverspot,
> orangutan, Grevy's zebra, black rhinoceros, bighorn ram, African
> elephant, pine barrens tree frog, giant panda and bald eagle.  The
> exhibition also features text panels by Dr. Catherine Lohmann, a
> biologist and lecturer at UNC-CH, that examine the current status of
> each animal next to each print.
>
> The Ackland Art Museum is located next door to the Hanes Art Center
> Auditorium on South Columbia Street in Chapel Hill.  Regular hours are
> Wednesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday, 1:00
> p.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Admission is free.  For more information, call
> (919) 406-9837 (recorded info), (919) 966-5736 (museum office) or
> (919) 962-0837 (TTY), or visit www.ackland.org
> --
> *******************************************

Date:         Wed, 8 Nov 2000 06:58:56 -0500
From:         "John L. Trapp" <John_Trapp@FWS.GOV>
Subject:      Giant Carolina Swamp-Eater

Is there anyone out there who can provide this gentleman with any
information on the possible identify of the so-called "Giant Carolina
Swamp-Eater?"  See appended message for details.  Is this a bird or some
other creature?  Is it real or fictional?  Please send your response
directly to Mr. Takeuchi at <takeuchit@video-tech.co.jp>.

In a followup communication, Mr. Takeuchi noted that "Some Japanese viewers
are very severe and critical.  They will claim our mistake, if we put a
wrong name.  Even [if] the creature does not exist, we need some kind of
evidence to prove them."  Thanks for your help!

John L. Trapp
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Division of Migratory Bird Management
Arlington, Virginia USA
john_trapp@fws.gov

> Tomoko Takeuchi <takeuchit@video-tech.co.jp
> To:     endangered@fws.gov
> Subject:     Giant Carolina swamp-eater
> 11/02/2000 01:42 AM
>
> I have a question.
>
> I'm producing an American movie called CROCODILE for Japanese home video.
> In this film, fishermen find a huge nest of eggs, and think that those eggs
> are from a giant Carolina swamp-eater. It might be a bird because one of
> the fishermen says, "this damn bird closed the tannery," and throws the
> eggs into lake.
> I need to translate its name in Japanese.
> If you know anything about this bird, would you please tell me the real
> name for it?
>
> Thank you very much.
>
> Tomoko Takeuchi
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>  ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '
>            Tomoko Takeuchi
>    e-mail:takeuchit@video-tech.co.jp
>         Image Produce Center
>          Video-Tech Co. Ltd.
>  tel:81-3-3470-6621 fax:81-3-3470-6650
>  , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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

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