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Fw: Storm-killed birds on PINS



Thought you'd be interested in the following message from Hurricane Net.
(Read to the end of the message.)

Judy Murray
Chapel Hill, NC
jmurray@unc.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: Hurricane Net <jwcoffey@tricon.net>
To: Hurricane Net <jwcoffey@tricon.net>
Date: Wednesday, August 25, 1999 9:07 PM
Subject: Re: Storm-killed birds on PINS


>Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 10:35:17 -0500
>From: Martin Reid
>Subject: Re: Storm-killed birds on PINS
>
>On Aug 24 from c. midday to 4.30 p.m. John and Barbar Ribble and I searched
>the top seven(ish) miles of drivable beach at Padre Island N.S. [TX]
Unusual
>LIVE birds were few (one Marbled Godwit, small groups of Red Knot, lots of
>swallows) except for one southbound small jaeger offshore that was probably
>a Long-tailed.
>Sadly, dead birds were there in great numbers and variety. We drove slowly,
>with me leaning out of the open van door so that we could spot the more
>interesting items; I estimate that we saw on average c.10 corpses every 100
>feet - this converts to more than 500 per mile.  Most were Purple Martins
>and swallows(mostly Barn), but we also recorded the following:
>Blue-winged Teal (15+)
>Little Blue Heron (6)
>Tricolored Heron (1)
>Green Heron (5)
>Cattle Egret (6)
>Night-Heron sp. (1)
>Sora (1)
>Yellow Warbler (1)
>cowbird sp. (1)
>Yellow-billed Cuckoo (2)
>Laughing Gull (6)
>yellowlegs Sp. (3)
>and one Storm-Petrel sp. - carcass saved, to be sent to A & M for
>identification.
>Given that most of the victims were small passerines and that many had
>already started to break apart (and get run-over by vehicle traffic), I
>expect we missed lots of birds.
>One interesting aspect of this rather gruesome activity was that the colors
>of most feathers on these water-soaked corpses had become much blacker than
>on live birds - so much so that we struggled to identify the first couple
>of birds - until we figured out what was going on!  For example: the adult
>Little Blue Herons were BLACK, not blue - with just a little maroon on the
>neck/head to help us identify them; The blue forewing patches of most of
>the BW teals were almost black - you had to look very hard and closely (not
>much fun with a smelly corpse!) to detect the bluish sheen; also the green
>speculum feathers were mostly now a shiny red-maroon - like that of a
>Gadwall - most odd.
>Even in death, birds have something to teach us.
>
>Regards,
>
>Martin Reid
>Fort Worth, TX