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Cashwell, birding on WUNC; re: blooms/fruit



Hi Carolinabirders,

I just heard a promo on the radio, WUNC (the Triangle's NPR affiliate),
that Peter Cashwell and his book "The Verb: To Bird" are going to be on
"The State of Things" today. The show airs from noon to 1 PM, and gets
replayed 8-9 PM. WUNC is at 91.5 FM in the Triangle, also 90.9 FM in
Manteo and 90.5 FM in Buxton/Cape Hatteras. Folks out of range of these
signals can listen on the internet at
http://www.wunc.org/
(though you may have to use Internet Explorer, their website crashed my
Netscape 7.02 window)

Saw on another listserv that the Galveston Ornithological Society in east
Texas is offering an on-line birding course. Costs $200. See
http://www.galvestonbirders.org/
for full details.

THe only big rarity on the listservs today is a Yellow-nosed Albatross in
the Gulf of Mexico, seen from a fishing charter 9 miles offshore near the
Florida-Alabama state line. I also see reports of Black-bellied Whistling-
Ducks on both the Georgia and Tennessee listservs, which might suggest
that Ritch Lilly's South Tibwin flock a few days ago may have been wild
birds; the species seems to stage periodic northward irruptions...

Sharon Funderburk came up with a logical-sounding explanation relating
this year's Mulberry surplus to last year's drought. She says that, not
only were flowers in short supply last year due to the drought, so were
insects and other critters, which left birds short on food to feed their
chicks, forcing them to rely more heavily than usual on fruit. This year,
with tons of rain, they have all the bugs they can handle, and so don't
need the fruit as much.

Of course, since flowers in general have rebounded from the drought and
are in great supply this year, it's also possible that the trees just have
more flowers, and so more fruit, than last year. I still miss having the
masses of waxwings swarming all over that tree, only thing about that tree
I actually liked...

Good birding,

Josh


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

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