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Winter fish crows in Cumberland County, NC



     When I began birding some years ago, one of the "rules" that I 
learned was that fish crows are summer only residents here in the 
Sandhills.  My listings for 1999 are all coastal, no help here.  
However, by the beginning of 2000 I was reasonably confident in my 
ability to say "fish crow," "American crow," or "I dunno."  Crows are 
common enough that I don't log them unless I'm certain of the species.  
Even so, my first Cumberland County entry for fish crow was 3/16 and my 
last was 10/20.  During that year I became acutely aware of the 
frequency with which fish crows were heard on campus.  My first 
Cumberland listing for 2001 was 2/27 and my last was 11/30.  This year 
my first notation was 1/7.  All of these listings came an area about two 
miles wide east to west and a mile or so north to south.  I suggest that 
it's only a matter of time until those of us doing the CBC for 
Cumberland County turn up  fish crows during that CBC.  I suspect that 
if the counters had access to the big landfill off of Anne Street in 
Fayetteville or to the water treatment plant off US 301, fish crows 
would be a regular entry on the CBC list, because I remember Will Cook's 
writing that in the Raleigh area fish crows hang around the dump in the 
winter.
     Obviously we all need to keep our eyes and ears open!

Bob
---------------------------------------------------------
Robert C. Perkins, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Methodist College, Fayetteville, NC 28311
910-630-7037     rperkins@methodist.edu