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Re: berry loving black-throated blues



On Mon, 14 Oct 2002, Ward Linda wrote:
>
> Today we watched black-throated blue warblers pick
> berries from three different bushes here in Currituck
> County, NC:
> Hearts A'Bustin (Euonymus americanus Linnaeus)
> Beauty Berry (Callicarpa americana Linnaeus)
> Devil's Walking Stick or Devil's Club or Toothache Tree  (couldn't find
> Latin name)

Hi C-birders,

There are two plants which both share the English names of Devil's Walking
Stick, Hercules' Club, and Toothache Tree. One is Aralia spinosa, the
other Zanthoxylum clava-herculis. For anyone who wants to plant them in
their yards, they *ARE* native American species (as are the Callicarpa and
Euonymus), as opposed to the things that most landscapers in this state
seem to constantly plant. Niche Gardens west of Carrboro
http://www.nichegdn.com/
sells Hearts A-bustin' and Beautyberry; not sure where you can buy either
species of Devil's Walking Stick.

My wife and I actually planted a pair of Euonymus at our former apartment
on Ninth Street, though I think at least one of them died before ever
making fruit, and this fall planted a Beautyberry (and several other
wildlife-friendly native plants) in front of our new house after removing
about a dozen privets (Ligustrum sp.), a Leland Cypress, a Eurasian holly,
and one large "Heavenly" Bamboo (Nandina sp.). All of the removed plants
were invasive exotic species (except the cypress, exotic but not
invasive); I think the "Heaven" where they found Nandina must be the same
hot, firey place where they dug up the so-called "Tree of Heaven"
(Ailanthus altissima)...

Back to birds: heard my first Golden-crowned Kinglets of the autumn this
afternoon on the Duke campus while looking for mushrooms for tomorrow's
diversity lab. Before that, expanded my new yard list to 51 with an
Eastern Phoebe that cooperatively perched on our feeder pole and bobbed
his tail.

Actually, the kinglets were only my first for NC this fall. I also heard
some over the weekend in the Black Hills of South Dakota! Airlie and I
went there for our anniversary, visiting some friends of mine. Other bird
highlights included a Golden Eagle, two Prairie Falcons in high-altitude
combat, two flocks of trumpeting Sandhill Cranes soaring high above, and
my second-ever Dipper (the first was nearly 20 years ago!).

Good birding,

Josh


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

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