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Duke Gardens, Minneapolis layover, Re: West Nile



Hi Carolinabirders,

Airlie and I are heading to the Black Hills for our first anniversary. En
route, we have a four-hour layover in Minneapolis. Are there any
interesting natural places to go within easy reach of the airport, or is
the surrounding area totally urbanized?

Took a quick walk in the Duke Gardens just before noon today, looking for
slime molds for today's biodiversity lab (too dry, only found one old
one). The Blomquist Native Plants area was loaded with birds; mostly
residents, but massive numbers of American Robins moving in, and one of
the robin flocks had a Wood Thrush included. Probably a migrant from well
north of here, maybe my old Massachusetts stomping grounds; it's getting
kinda late for them around here. Triangle Bird Checklist rates them as
"Rare" after the first week of October, totally gone after the first week
of November.

Also ran into an Eastern Box Turtle. Kinda surprised, given that Duke's
West Campus is pretty thoroughly surrounded by roads and suburbs; this one
must've immigrated via the Duke Forest, unless someone caught it elsewhere
and released it in the gardens. Had a big notch missing from the left rear
corner of its shell.

On 10 Oct 2002, Russ Palmeri wrote:
>
> In Chicago, the Northern suburbs have been hit so hard that there are NO
> MORE Crows in the area, prompting an article in the Chicago Tribune, and
> several letters to the editor complaining that the number of birds at
> backyard feeders has dropped precipitously.
>
> I've noted quite a crowd at our feeders.
>
> Does anyone have any thoughts on this issue?

It should probably be noted that we humans have greatly increased the
populations of most corvids (jays, crows, ravens, magpies, etc.) via
feeders and garbage. This *might* be a return to more historical
population densities. Similar issues are probably involved in the periodic
outbreaks of rabies among raccoons and skunks, and maybe even the eye
disease in House Finches. Given that corvids are notorious nest raiders,
their decline *might* even be good news for smaller songbirds like
warblers and vireos, as well as other common corvid prey like baby
turtles. But that's just speculation, we probably don't have reliable
population data on jay and crow populations very far back. Range, maybe.

Good birding,

Josh


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

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