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ESA; Re: Jackson park Greenway, Piedmont Ravens, swift roosts, etc.



Hi Carolinabirders,

I'm just back from a week in Savannah, GA for the Ecological Society of
America annual meeting, followed by a couple of nights with the Parnells
(my in-laws) on Lake Murray. Had hopes of hitting Savannah NWR, maybe
Pinckney Island, but did not happen. Best bird sightings were a trio of
Wood Storks soaring over I-95 as we headed north; and a visit, via the
Parnell's boat, to the Purple Martin roost in Lake Murray! That roost,
well, words fail me. Closest comparisons would be the really huge colonies
of Mexican Free-tailed Bats at Carlsbad Caverns and the bridge in Austin,
and maybe some of the bigger migrating flocks of Tree Swallows I've seen
on the Massachusetts coast at Parker River NWR. Like a weather pattern
made entirely of birds. Or a really angry hornet's nest the size of a city
block.

Saw what seemed to be other swallows roosting with the Martins. Barn,
Tree, maybe Rough-winged? And with the report of a possible Cave Swallow
from the Orangeburg sod farms (where I wanted to stop, but didn't, because
I had my mother-in-law and pregnant wife in the car, and no scope), I
wonder if one of those could have been mixed in as well. But just trying
to isolate any one swallow from that swirling mass, well...

ESA meeting had lots of interesting bird research reports. I had lunch one
day with a researcher who had worked on the Louisiana coast; he had
quantified that the Chinese Tallow Trees down there had next to no insects
in them, but from a distance were just as attractive to spring neotropical
migrants coming over the Gulf of Mexico as any other patch of green trees.
But the birds would find no food there, and would move on as soon as they
could. Of course, given how many neotrops die in bad weather before even
reaching land, it's easy to imagine others dying in the bug-free zone of
Chinese Tallow which they've mistaken for more caterpillar-rich habitat.

My being out of town caused me to miss the report on the Navy landing
field on "The State of Things". Did it tell us anything we didn't already
know? In particular, how did the Navy official address the issue of risk
to pilots? I was kind of disappointed in the Charlotte paper editorial; I
think this project can be opposed based on calm, rational analysis of
facts, while that article took on a shrill, paranoid tone (especially the
references to "Orwellian doublespeak" and greenwashing) that more
discredits our opposition as a bunch of emotional, radical tree-huggers.

On Thu, 7 Aug 2003, John Lindfors wrote:
>
> Yesterday, I saw a surveyor at work on the main road of J.P near the
> small parking lot at the Nature Trail.  It seems that big changes are
> going to be made at the park.  A paved "Green Way" exercise and bicycle
> path will cut across the parking lot of the nature trail travel west
> toward Mud Creek and just before the bridge there, turn right or north
> and paralell the east side of Mud Creek

Paved trails in general are not a great idea, and especially should not be
built paralleling a creek! The Ellerbe Creek trail was built this way, and
is now in danger of falling into the water because the extra erosion
brought on by the surrounding pavement and the channelization of the
creek are eating right in underneath the asphalt. And a developed path
will *definitely* harm birding, particularly breeding species, according
to research conducted at NCSU:
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~grhess/research/greenways/

Someone should advise Jackson Park to keep their paved trails outside the
woods and at a distance from the creek as much as possible, or they'll be
costing themselves a lot of maintenance and repair money in the future,
and degrading local wildlife value to boot.

On Mon, 4 Aug 2003, Harry Legrand wrote:
>
> I'm away from The Chat and my field notes (and Avendex), but I saw a
> Common Raven flying "down" I-40/85 somewhere near Burlington or
> Gibsonville a few years ago. It was definitely east of Greensboro.
>
> I haven't heard anything from the Guilford County folks whether ravens
> are still nesting(?) in a quarry in the county.

I do now have my Avendex handy. No records for Greensboro or Guilford
County more recent than December 2000, and none in the breeding season
since April 1998. But, the key question is, has anyone gone looking for
them?

> Randy Emmitt wrote:
> >
> > We were at Alamance Regional Hospital and while unloading the truck I
> > heard a Common Raven and caught a glimpse of it flying away.
> >
> > I called Will and he believes this might be a new county record. Perhaps we
> > should start looking for ravens in Durham and Chapel Hill.

Brian Bockhahn had one at Occoneechee Mountain last March; only Triangle
record to date, apparently...

On Sun, 3 Aug 2003, Fred Houk wrote:
>
> Fellow chimney swift fans, give me a shout for other places of note.

The biggest one I've seen to date was the one that Norm Budnitz led us to
last fall, just north of Brightleaf Square in Durham. A friend at the ESAs
claimed to have seen a big one in or near the big golden dome that
dominates the Savannah skyline; I guess I never looked at the right
moment, though I saw one or two smaller roosts elsewhere in Savannah.

Good birding,

Josh


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

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