rising@utzoo.uucp (Jim Rising) (05/10/88)
Greg, I don't know of any Torontonians going to N.J. at that time. It
would be nice, though.
Migration is still slow here. Many breeders are back and on territory,
but the mass of migrants has yet to have passed through. I banded a
couple of Grasshopper Sparrows yesterday--kind of unusual. I'm looking
forward to my annual trip to Pt. Pelee next weekend. Incidentally, I
would welcome any netter who is interested in supporting ornithological
research (e.g. banding stations) in Ontario to sponsor me in the
bird-a-thon (pledge x/species. Tax deductable in Canada. I figure
that I'll get around 150 species.
--Jim Rising
--
Name: Jim Rising
Mail: Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1
UUCP: {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!risingpratt@paul.rutgers.edu (Lorien Y. Pratt) (03/21/89)
Well, here in central New Jersey this past week was the start of Bird Spring.
Cardinals are now in full Song (although they haven't paired yet). Song
sparrows which didn't used to be around are now common and I've heard one
song, too. Male Robins are here (really, they weren't before), and last
Wednesday, I heard Killdeer making noises very high up in the air.
Starlings have also started at it, and on Friday a Mockingbird was going full
swing from the top of a tree on Busch campus.
As for waterfowl, at Asunpink WMA in the 82 degrees last Saturday, there
were probably 10 Greater Scaup, one Redhead, and a couple of small rafts of
Ruddy Duck.
Are there any ``batters'' out there? We saw a big reddish one last Wednesday
too. Do they hibernate?
--Lori
--
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Lorien Y. Pratt Computer Science Department
pratt@paul.rutgers.edu Rutgers University
Hill Center
(201) 932-4634 New Brunswick, NJ 08901HF.GXS@forsythe.stanford.edu (Gail Smithson) (03/22/89)
Here at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, I had a surprise this morning. As I was walking through the Quad (short for quadrangle. This is a group of buildings all about 100 years old which were the original buildings for the university. They are grouped in a rectangle with a large courtyard in between which is mostly cobblestones with several large planter boxes with various large trees and bushes inside) I spotted a duck up in one of the palm trees, perched just below the palm fronds on left over stems of fallen fronds. An acorn woodpecker was dive bombing it. The only ducks I have seen in the Quad before was a pair of mallards on the ground in the planter boxes. Closer inspection of the treed duck indentified it as a male wood duck! And the female was just on the other side of the palm. I was quite surprised to see the wood ducks there as this is not the habitat they are usually found in. There is not open water nearby, save for Lake Lagunita which is about a mile away and is dry most of the year. They soon flew off. I imagine they came in at night or the very early morning and were resting or checking out the trees for nesting cavities. The cliff swallows arrived back at Stanford this weekend. They greeted me with their chitterings as I came to work yesterday. They have a nesting colony here and were already breeding. At the weekend I went up the coast with my Audubon group to Sonoma County and we found a lek of Blue Grouse doing their strutting. We heard several males doing their low calls, actually saw two males, but no females. Gail Smithson
amber@scott.stat.washington.edu (Amber Tatnall) (03/22/89)
Spring Migration is underway in Washington. Birding in Seattle on Sunday
March 19 discovered the first violet-green swallows of the season (for me
anyway!) Also, lots of killdeer on the wing, calling incessantly;
California quail, Ring-Necked Pheasant, Green Winged Teal, Shovelers,
Ruddy Ducks in mating plumage, coots, cormorants, Buffleheads, Redwings,
Audubon's Warbler, Bushtits, House Finch, Song Sparrows singing at least
four songs, a Merlin which disturbed the whole, crows, Canada geese (two
subspecies (?), and a Barnacle Goose which I didn't see.
In any case, there was a lot of activity -- the Mallards were really
feisty, flying more like Teal than a respectable Mallard. But it's
Spring!! Who could blame them?