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ECWA walk; alcid invasion context



Hi Carolinabirders,

The spring bird walk for the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association is
scheduled for this coming Saturday at 8 AM. Non-ECWA members are welcome.
Meet at 8 AM at Indian Trail Park; we'll walk from there down through
ECWA's Six Acre Wood (which is actually 17 acres now) to Westover Park,
and back again.

Kyle Van Houtan, TA of Stuart Pimm's field ornithology course, just
returned from a conference in Great Britain. He related to me that an
alcid researcher from Scotland had commented that the breeding colonies up
there had not yet begun nesting, and are now three weeks later than usual.
May be connected to water temperature shifts, perhaps an El Nino-like
effect; might explain why we still have Razorbills, Dovekies, and a Thick-
billed Murre off the NC coastline in April! The question is, could the
Wrightsville Beach murre be the same individual as the Fort Macon bird, or
is it a second?

Another question: does anyone have a friend in Canada who lives near an
alcid colony, and could check whether the delayed breeding is happening on
this side of the Atlantic or not? Would be wierd if our visitors turned
out to be from across the pond...

Good birding,

Josh


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

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