Bobolinks and Kentucky

[Shantanu Phukan <phukan@email.unc.edu>]

Dear birders:
While out looking for the nest of the Warbling Vireo on Dairyland Road I
discovered a largish flock of Bobolinks in the corn field directly across
from the road and opposite the farm house. A number of you had asked me
about finding Bobolinks in Orange County and I ahd seen a flock in this
same field a good three weeks ago, but the corn then was low and the flock
looked like it was headed other places, which it eventually did as I
watched. This flock, by contrast, had the distinct look of being sated and
therefore unlikely to move anytime soon. So go out there and get 'em. The
warbling vireo nest is very easily visible in the middle maple tree, on an
outermost clump of leaves about 11:30 on the tree as you stand on the
road. And the brooding bird was also clearly visible.
On the way back to Carrboro I went by Borland Road and stopped at the
corner with Dodsons Crossroads to hear for the Kentucky Warbler that
Ginger has reported from there. Last year Ginger and I spent a morning
wistfully walking the road and trying to discern if we were indeed hearing
a Kentucky or merely being fooled by a Carolina Wren. This year I am more
confident about these two songs, and yes, there is definitely a Kentucky
in there. I heard it sing repeatedly from deep in the woods, and then I
spied a little deer trail which I followed in through the underbrush. It
was not too hard, except fro the dripping wet foliage. In about a 200
yards the ground begins to slope and the forest opens up a little into a
clearing with early successional trees. This is where the Kentucky sat and
taunted me for over half an hour, singing practically in my face and
remaining incorporeal. I saw it eventually as I was slipping and falling
and it was hightailing it out of there. A brief glimpse, but my adventures
with kentuckies continue for this year. 
The pond at Maple View farm had yellow warblers and, once again, an
invisible Blackpoll.
Such was the state of things on Dairyland today. 
Shantanu Phukan-

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SHANTANU PHUKAN
Lecturer in Urdu-Hindi & Indian Literature
University of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill
Curriculum in Asian Studies
Alumni Hall 413C
Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599

phukan@email.unc.edu
919-962-6825
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