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Bennett Place; Fwd: Stork Cam



Hi Carolinabirders,

My mother just e-mailed me the URL of a live internet feed from a video
camera trained on a Stork's nest somewhere in Germany. A long way from the
Carolinas, but I thought some folks here might enjoy it...
http://www.storchennest.de/en/index_live-video.html
You need RealPlayer to view this, I think it's a free download.

Back here in Durham, I spent a few hours yesterday at Bennett Place, where
the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association has begun a campaign to make the
area a monument of natural history in addition to that of the US Civil
War. After a couple of hours' clearing small trees - ECWA director Steve
Hiltner is convinced that the area used to be a savannah, with widely
spaced trees (mainly Shortleaf Pine and Post Oak) separated by grass and
wildflowers, but regressed to denser forest due to fire suppression -
Steve and I took a quick walk through the woods. We were serenaded by a
Wood Thrush and a Red-eyed Vireo, but the high point came as we headed
back to the meadow when I heard a quiet chip note, like some bird giving
an alert call but not wanting to call attention to itself. I looked up and
spotted an Ovenbird lurking in the branches not far overhead; we must have
been close to its nest! I think we managed not to step on it, we continued
back rather than looking for the nest.

Actually, given that my NHAS Wildathon team saw eggs in an Ovenbird nest
over a month ago, I wonder if this could have been a second nest? Seems
like the first brood might have fledged by now.

Bennett Place is also proving to be a surprisingly good place for
wildflowers. It's best known for the rare Lewis' Heartleaf (Hexastylis
lewisii). It's also known to once have had Pink Sundew (Drosera
capillaris), though our first few cursory attempts to rediscover them have
come up empty. But the meadow had a great Skullcap (Scutellaria sp.) show
a couple of weeks ago, and right now it's awash with Nuttall's Lobelia (L.
nuttallii) plus a few Sidebeak Pencil-flowers (Stylosanthes biflora). I
also recognized the foliage of several attractive wildflowers that haven't
bloomed yet, like Meadow Beauty (Rhexia sp.).

Good birding (and botanizing),

Josh


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

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