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Pea Island on fire; Froggy valentine



Hi C-birders,

Since my last post, I have heard from 3-4 different USF&WS employees and 
one or two other people that the staff of Pea Island NWR annually burns 
about a third of the refuge. Keeps woody plants from encroaching into the 
marshes, and helps to generate lots of fresh green sprouts in the spring, 
many of which are then eaten by waterfowl. Reportedly the Snow Geese were 
back on the mud before it even stopped smoking, looking for plant tubers 
that were exposed by the fire. Thanks to those who filled me in.

Started yesterday as most Tuesdays this semester, reading papers (this 
week's are about Global Warming) by my kitchen window. The female Rufous 
Hummingbird is still coming and going regularly, as is one or more Brown 
Creepers and the more usual yard fare.

In the afternoon, Cait Coberly led me to a spot which she said was part 
of the Butner Gamelands. It turns out I'd been there before: it's the 
spot where powerlines cross Old Oxford Highway, now labeled as (I think) 
the Little River Waterfowl Impoundment. It's a guaranteed spot to find 
Prothonotary Warblers in season, but still too early for that now. On the 
other hand, Yellow-rumped Warblers were VERY MUCH in season; incredible 
numbers of them, filling practically every tree along the highway! Lesser 
numbers of other normal insectivores, including one or two of the 
Red-headed Woodpeckers that have seemed to infest every wet forested spot 
in Durham this fall and winter, and loads of Song and White-throated 
Sparrows.

Love was in the air, though, or more properly in the water. We were 
greeted by a mixed chorus of Spring Peepers and Chorus Frogs 
(Pseudacris sp.), and found a Cricket Frog (Acris sp.) later on. As we 
walked past the gate down the dirt road which runs west along Old Oxford 
Highway, I spotted some movement in one of the little puddles in the 
wheel-ruts of the road. Looking closer, I spotted what looked like a frog 
at the bottom of the pool. When it didn't move at first, I worried that 
it was dead. Then I picked it up, and realized that it hadn't moved 
because it was attatched to a second frog that had been concealed 
underneath it! I ran back to the car for my camera and took pictures of 
this pair, and we found a couple more further up in the same puddle.

Good birding, and happy valentine's day...

Josh



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

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