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A spot to watch?



Hi carolinabirders,

I TA'd a biodiversity class field trip to the NC state zoo in Asheboro 
today. The birds we actually saw were all either common stuff - Canada 
Goose, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Turkey Vulture - or captives. The captives 
include a great assortment, even while the aviary is closed. The Sonoran 
Desert complex and Rocky Coast exhibits were particularly fun from a 
bird-o-centric point of view.

I'm posting, though, because I noticed that the zoo has a hummingbird 
garden. It is located adjacent to the petting zoo, and several flowers 
here were still open today; I did not get close enough to notice if there 
were any feeders here or not. In any case, if those flowers stay open 
through much of the winter, this spot may be a prime candidate for a 
Rufous or other vagrant wintering hummingbird to show up. And the 
strategic location, near the petting zoo and rare farm animals exhibit, 
makes it a convenient point for any birder who has impatient children or 
a non-birding spouse; send them into the petting zoo while you watch for 
hummers. Alas, I was escorting college students, too old for the petting 
zoo, so I didn't have time to check the garden out. It's still a little 
early for many of the winter hummers to be around yet, anyway.

As long as I'm talking about the zoo, for any birders who have not 
visited there yet, here are some of the species you can see in the North 
American end, up close and personal, no spotting scope required, maybe 
even getting fed if you're timing's right:

Peregrine Falcon (two individuals, both taken in with shotgun injuries 
	too severe to ever effectively fly again)
Atlantic Puffin
Thick-billed Murre
Parakeet Auklet (the alcids are all in an exhibit that allows you to 
	watch them "fly" underwater, something you won't see in the wild!)
Hooded Merganser
Blue-winged Teal
Bufflehead (although these were hiding today)
Ruddy Duck
Elf Owl
Greater Roadrunner
Inca Dove
White-winged Dove
Cactus Wren
House Finch
Pyrrhuloxia
Gila Woodpecker
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Hooded Oriole (did not actually see the last four; the last ten were 
	all in the Sonoran Desert Pavilion)

The African end of the zoo has an even more exotic assortment of species, 
although presently mostly out of sight while the aviary gets renovated.

Good birding, even indoors!

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology

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