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NPR story; RE: hummingbird books; signs of spring



Hi Carolinabirders,

As I type this, NPR's "All Things COnsidered" is broadcasting a funny
story about a crew of mothers and children on a birdwatching boat trip
together. NPR often replays such things toward the end of ATC, so maybe
folks can catch it again toward the end of the show.

On Mon, 4 Mar 2002 steven.shultz@unifi.com wrote:
>
> Anybody want a House Sparrow cheap?

I recommend buying a pet snake. Preferably a venomous one, though some
constrictors go after birds too...

> The woodcock have just about wrapped up for the season.  We usually peak in
> early January with courting woodcock.  One lone bird continued to display
> Saturday morning, but was not terribly enthusiastic and quit before we
> could get a bearing on him.  (Wonder why the Brickhouse Rd birds seem to
> start quite a bit later and display further into the year?)
>
> OK, where's that first shorebird??

Hey, woodcocks are shorebirds... sort of... okay, so they don't visit
shores very often... I would guess that the climate near Steve's house is
more in the coastal plain zone, while Brickhouse Road is very much in the
Piedmont (I think nearby Oxford had the highest snowfall not only in this
past January's blizzard, but in 2000's too). That's the only explanation I
can think of. The difference in starting and ending dates between Durham's
best-known lek and Steve's birds has been pretty consistent over the last
3-4 years.

Not quite such an avian sign of spring, but our best-known local
salamander breeding pond was absolutely LOADED with Spotted Salamanders
Saturday night! It hadn't rained in a while, so when the weather finally
turned amphibious the critters must have stampeded the pond. 2-3 species
of calling frogs, and dodged several toads crossing the highway as I drove
home. One large aeshnid-looking dragonfly larva, maybe a Springtime Darner
getting ready to emerge? Returned Sunday morning, found one adult Marbled
under a log but not a single Spotted in view.

> You can get both books together for $36.36 at Amazon.com.

I'm going to take my usual stance and add that the Regulator Bookshop, a
locally owned independent store on Ninth Street in Durham, also can sell
you these two books. I'm betting that Asheville, Columbia, Charlotte,
Charleston, and all the other metropolitan areas of the Carolinas have
similar places, where your money supports the local economy - and,
indirectly, ecology - rather than a big faceless publicly traded
Enron-esque corporation. And bird-centric stores like the Wild Bird Center
probably have them too.

Good birding,

Josh


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

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