[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

GT TOWHEE Wednesday - yes and no



Seven birders visited the Green-tailed Towhee spot yesterday (1/9/02) 
from 8:30 am - 4:30 pm.  During the morning we tried quiet observation 
with no pishing or tapes - no luck with the towhee.  During the afternoon 
we tried playing tapes of the GT Towhee song, pishing, and screech-owling 
- absolutely no response from the bird.  It was a fairly windy day (10-20 
mph), especially after 11 am, which didn't help matters.  For another 
bonus, a front-end loader was noisily working on the gypsum mountain all 
day, plus the wind was blowing the sulphurous stench from the pile right 
to us.

At about 1:45 pm, however, during one of the many lulls in our efforts at 
finding the bird, I happened to notice an unfamiliarly-shaped bird 
sitting atop a nearby Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria) bush.  Put my binoculars up 
- it was the towhee!  I got a nice 5-10 second look before it ducked 
down.  The others birders rushed in to try to get a glimpse, but only 
Jeff Pippen managed a 1-second look before it disappeared into the 
thicket. The most striking field mark, besides the shape, is the white 
throat, followed by the chestnut crown and greenish tail. We were not 
able to glimpse it again.  Tapes and pishing had absolutely no effect.  

This particular spot is on the right side of the road near a group of 
three pine trees (the middle one dead), just after the utility wires 
cross the road.  Ricky Davis managed to see a Yellow-breasted Chat in 
this thicket, which the rest of us missed.  The thicket is very dense and 
impenetrable, composed of Yaupon interwoven with Catbriers (Smilax spp.).

We did have a good showing of four green Painted Buntings - easily seen 
feeding on the bird seed pile in the weedy field that Derb Carter 
started.  Ricky started another bird seed pile on the opposite side of 
the road, a little further up.

We also saw the goose trio (1 white Snow, 1 blue Snow, 1 Ross's) in the 
field behind the green field just past the towhee spot.  This area is 
posted, but the ADM folks we met said they thought it would be OK if we 
wandered around a bit in search of the towhee.  Might be a good idea to 
check again before wandering back there.

So the good news is that the Green-tailed Towhee is still there, but the 
bad news is that it can be extremely difficult to see - there's a good 
chance you'll miss it even if you spend all day looking.  It would 
probably help to visit the area on a non-windy day.

Good luck!

-- 
Charles W. "Will" Cook                  w 919-660-7423
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook            cwcook@duke.edu
Biology Dept., Duke Univ., Box 90340, Durham, NC 27708