Brian Taber, Editor (253-1181)

September Euents

Meeting Wednesday, September16th, at 7:30 p.m., inRoom 117, MillingtonHaIl on the WiIIiam andMary Campus

Bob Anderson, Environ-mental and NaturalResources Specialistwith TRADOC at Ft.Monroe, will share hisview of "The Pleasuresof Birding in Mexico",with a nod to Yucatan'sarchaelogical treasures.Bob, an energetic birder,lives in Norfolk.

The September field tripwill be to Kiptopeke towatch hawks. CalI EmilySharrett at 229-6199 toreserve a space. We willcar pool to save moneyon the bridge-tunnel toll.

Program

Field Trip

August Field Trip

Tom Armour led the field trip on August29th to Hog Island. He was accompaniedby Homer and Betty Jones, BarbaraRockwell, Ann Young, Joy Archer and LeeShuster. Together they found over 40species of birds, including Cattle Egrets,Blue-winged Teal, a Bald Eagle, aCooper's Hawk, Stilt Sandpipers, a Yel-low-throated Warbler, Blue Grosbeaksand Bobolinks.

Dates To RememberSeptember 1 8-20th, VSO ChincoteagueField Trip

October l0th-Pelagic trip out of OregonInlet (contact Brian Patteson, P.O. Box1 135, Amherst, Y a. 24527)

October 8-lzth-Minitour of North Caro-Iina Outer Banks (contact Brian Patteson)

October 2 1 st.-WBC meeting-Speakerwill be Tim O'Connell

November 18th. WBC meeting-Speakerwill be Bill Akers

December 4-6th, Back Bay Field Trip

December- Williamsburg Bird CIubAnnual Winter Bird Count

May 14-16th, 1993, VSO Annual Meeting.Hosted in Norton, Va. by the CumberlandNature CIub. The banquet speaker will beTed Eubanks, who runs the Piping PloverProject on the Texas and Mexican GuIfCoast.

The Great Outdoors

William and Mary's special falIprogramguides lists a Birdwatching course, taughtby BilI Snyder on October 1st and 3rd.Register now to reserve class space!

Blood Ttansfuslon Saves Eagle(from AmeiantBirds magazine)

By performing what is believed tobe the fixst blood transfusion involv-ing a Bald Eagle, veterinaria::s atthe Wildtife Center of Virginira savedthe life of a starving, six month oldfemalebird.

The procedure sustained theeagle while the staff administeredadditional fluids and nutrients. Thetechnigues used, injecting blooddirectly into the bone marrowcavity, uras actually developed forpremahue human babies, whoseveins are too small for conventionaltransfusions. Previrously, the Centerhad successfuliy used tJre rareprocedure on ottrer birds, includinghawks and owls.

Outer Banks

Tom Armour rnras on NorthCarolina's Outer Barks for 3 weeksinAugrust and found a grreat dealofbird activity. He found a CurlewSandpiper, both ibis, Iots of heronsand egirets and sandpipers, Avocetsand Black-necked Stihs. He sawCaspiar:, Royal, Gufl-billed, Com-mon, Blaclr, Sandwich and Leasttems. lncredibly, he saw 3 BddtedTems thathungaround for4 daysin Kill Devil Hills!

Scotland Adventurc

By Mariffi Zeigler

\AItriIe traveling in Scotland in Jtrly, I had a ctrance tosee some birds along the Hebridean coast and meet a fewother birdrararchers along the way. Off an inner sandybeactr on ttre island of Iona where Vikings had murderedmonks (Sth century) was a Red-throated Dver, wlrileplenty of Oyster Catctrers worked the stony Atlanticbeach. (Regrrettably, ttrere rnras not the extra halfday totake a boat trip to Statra where pufEns were gruararrteed.)Between the island of Mr:II and Oban on the mainl,and apairof Arctic Skuas playingthe pirate pursuedpreyfiercely, a lmocl<-out performance. A pair of BIad< Guillem-ots paddled in the calm of Oban harbor displaying theirbright redfeet.

One day later a cutain of rain obscured gloriousscenery nortJr of lvtrallaig. Never, mind, sea birds igmoredthe weather. Dozens of Black Guillemots and Bazorbillsswaminviewof the fer4z asMarur Shearrnraters wheeledoverthernraves.

On the east coast Firth of Forth, a female Eider withchick sailed by Inchcolm Island, which has a medievalabbey and colonies of nesting Herring Gulls and LesserBlack-bad(s. Eight-foot grey seals abound here.

At StirlingUniversity inland on an a:tificial loctr werea Grey Heron, Blaclc-headed Gdls, chicks of EuropeanCoot andMoorher:-

Earlier, in Derbyshire on the sparlding River Wye wasa Dpper family, adult with two fuU-sized young. ThisDpper has a distinctive white bib. Not far distant onmoorlandwest of Shef6eldone Red Grouse hadmadeitself lsrorrn, and several soaring Slry Larks.

Bitd Feeding: Boon or Bane

From FederWatch News,Autumn 1992

Are people who feedbirds unwittingly caus-ing the dedine of mignatory bird popuJations?According to Etoject FeederWatch a winterbird feeding survey sponsored by the ComellT ab of Omithology, the answer seems to beno.

Concem for migrratory birds tras beenmounting in recent yearc. Surveys suggestthat many populations have declined seri-ously over the past decade. Lr his recent book,Wrcrc Harrc Allthe Birds Gone?, omithologistJohn Terborgh discusses the possible causes.

He mentions deforestation on theneotropical wintering grrounds and fragrnenta-tion of breeding habitat in NorthAmerica,whichmostbiologists agtree are the mainproblems. But he suggests that bird feedingmay be a worry as well He wonders whetherfeeders may be causing increases in birdssuch as Brown-headed Cowbirds, which arenesting parasites, or Blue Jays, which arenotable nestrobbers. Ifso, he reasons, thenbird feeding may be ir:advertently contribut-ing to tJle declines of marry forest-dwellingspecies, such as warblers and vireos, ttratnever even visit feders.

To examine this possibility, Comell omi-thologist Erica H. Dunn turned to informationfrom Project FeederWatch as well as datafromthe Breeding Bird Suwey (BBS), acontinentwide survey of bird nr-rmbers inspring. She used the FeederWatch data todetermine which feeder species are mostwidespread in North America, and the BBSdata to leam which of them had been increas-ing and which had been decreasing duringthe past 2Syears.

Surprisingly, she discovered that 70percent of the most widespread feeder birdsshowed sigrnificantly dedining popuJ,ations.These includednot only ttre nest-robbingBlue

Jay, but also nest-site competitors suctr as theEuropean Starling and House Spa:row, as wellas several other species oft en considered"pests". The Brown-headed Cowbird alsodeclined, although not as much as marry others.These findings don't meanthese species arenot hurting migrratory birds ttrough their preda-tory or parasitizing actions, but it does suggestthat feeding them is not increasing ttreir popr:l,a-tions.

These obsenrations raise another ques-tion-is bird feeding bad for bird populations?Are species such as the BIue Jay being hr:rt bythepractice?

Probably not. Most of the declining feederspecies belong to gtroups that are declining as awhole+ven though some species in thosegroups don't visit feeders. These include mimics(thrashers and mosJringbirds), towhees, certainblacldcids, and qrarrows-birds that nestprimarily in grrassland or shrub habitats, whichare also declining.

Bird feeding may harm some species,however. One study in England showed thatregrularfeedinginduced some Blue Tits andGreat Tits to nest in suburban areas ratherttrantheir natural habitat, deciduous woodland. Thesuburban nesters showed very poor reproduc-tive success because natural foods, especiallythe insects needed to feed nestlings, were inshort zupply. We don't Im,ow whether Blue Jaysare responding to feedingby nestingin subr:r-bia, only to suffer insupportable predation bycats and raccoons. We do Imow that AmericanRobir:s, which often nest in suburbia, are show-ing population increasas r:ationwide.

Conclusive evidence forthe effects of birdfeeding onbirdpoputrations arnraits more de-tailedshrdies of eactr species. Meanwhile, birdfeeding does not seemto @use increases inmost of the qpecies that freguent feeders,including "pest " species.

3

From the National Fish and Wildlife Founda-tion pnblication Pannes in night,Spring 1992

Bird of the Season

The Ovenbird

The Ovenlcirds rangeis extensive forarnrar-bler. This grrounddwelling forest denizenbreeds frqrr northeastem Britistr Columbia,souttrem IVlacKenzie, and nortJrem Alberta,across southem Canada to Newfoundland,southto eastem Colorado, eastern Oldahoma,northem Arkansas, and the mid-Atlantic statesto northem Georcda Its wintering hauntsinclude coastalSouth Carolina Florida, the GulfStates, ooastal Texas, the West Indies, Me>rico,and CentralAmerica

The Ovenbird is thrush-like in characten Itwalks, bobs, and teeters overthe forest floor,gleaning insects, snails, earttrwoms, and slugsfromttre forest litter. Watchingthe antics ofthis neotropical migrrant doesn't reguire birdersto stain their neck muscles by looking to thetreetops. An orceptircnto the Ovembkd'sterrestrial existence is dtuingthe breedingseason, whenthemale selests aperctraficot orso abovettre forestfloorto sing. Themaleseldom sigms fromttre forest floor, but his flightsong has beendescribed as a jumble of musi-calnotes.

The Ovenlcird favors nesting in open,mahre, dry deciduous forest carpeted with anabundance of frllen leaves, logs, and rocks.Ttrey oocasionally inhabit wet or swampyforests, and in the extreme northem pan of itsrange, they may nest in jack pine and spruceforests.

The female selects a slight depression on

the leaf-covered ground, and builds the nest ofleaves, stems, and grass, and lines it wittr finermaterial, induding hair. She corrers the nestwittr a shallow dome of vegetation, creating aDrtch oven appearance. Ttre entrance hole isusrally a small slit at or near grround levelDruing mnstnrctio+ the male arzoids the nestsite, but keeps busy defendingthe territoryand waming his mate of arry intnrders.

The female lays 3-5 eggs and does all oftheinofiating. Attempts to rearmore ttranone brood eactr season are rare. Within t7-t4days afterthe clutchis complete, the eggrshatch and, at this time, the male staningpulting his share of the child-rearing duties. Aweekto 10 days afterhatching, the youngleave the nest and strike out ontheirowrl

Ovenlcirds are an "area-sensitive" species,nesting o<clusiveLy in largre, contignrous foresltracts. \ Ihere extensive forestlands renudnintact, the Ovenlcirdis stillcommon- Whereforestlands have become fragrmented, how-ever, predation and cowbirdparasitismtake atoll of nesting Ovenbirds. Combined with thedeforestation of Central and SouttrAmericantropical forests the, challenges facing Oven-birds appear overwhelming.

Breeding Bird Suwef data analyzed for tJreyears 7978-7987 suggest that Ovenlcird popu-lations declined 1% annually. As withotherneotropical mignants, the Ovenlcird is gettinghit from all sides. However, the combinedefforts of federal, state, and pri\xate interestwithin the Partners in Flight Progrram arehelpingto reversethe decline of oruforestsongisterc before it's too late. This proactiveapproach to conservation may be just what isneeded to avoid placing ttrese birds on theendangered species list.

4

f,'\a"%ctne$

Torrential rains inAugust flooded a large sectionof Dnrmrnonds ffe@ hrmingitinto alahe fcrweeks.It's tm bad that it was not mowed lust before theains, though as that would stuely have attracted lctsof shorebirds. Instead, the deep, weedy lake attractedover 100 Canada Geese and about 20IVIaIIards. Up to 3Great Egrrets visited and hundreds of swallows, includ-ing Barn, Tree and Bank were also there regruJarly. Afew shorebirds did @me, induding both yellowlegs,Spotted, Solitary and Least sandpipers as well as wellto 15Killdeer.

Dick Fout reports that anyone wishing to seeRavens easily shouldtravelto the Route 220 crossingof tJre Jackson River, just south of Clifton Forge, wherettrey are guite accessible

Bi[Williams was one of 18 people aboard for apelagic trip off Virginia Beach on Augnrst 22id" "

Ttrough birds and fish were not numerous, they wereable to find Parasitic and Pomarine jaegers, Audubon's,Greater and Cory's shearraraters, Wilson's Stomt-Petrels and Bridted Tems. They also saw Pilot Whalesand a Norttrem Oriole that was 60 miles offshore.

Bill Sheehan reports a Yellow-throated Warbler inhis yard on July 30ttt, probably an early migrrant. Imma-hrre American Redstarts were there onAugust 11thand 12th He also noted that Bluebirds used one box inhis yard 3 times this season and were feeding youngonAugrust 10ttt-

On rainy Augrust 15th, Bitl WiUiams and I searchedtloglsland for shorebirds mostly and found only a fewPectorals, yellowlegs, Semi-palmated Plcvers andSemi-palmated Sandpipers. We did find an early North-em lIarrier, torts of swallows, Black Tems and 2 CedarWarrnringrs.

Bill Sheehan uratched one of hisunfavorite sights on 8/31, ababycowbird being fed! This time, a Rufous-sided Towhee vvas doing all the work.Bill and TomArmour found a GlossyIbis in the long grrass at Dnrmmond'sField on 8/30. Ivlarilyn Zeigler reportsanAmerican Bittem fromthe Pitch andTar Swamp on Jamestovrm Island, alsoon8/30.

BillSnydertook aboat trip onPowhatan Creek on 8/18, finding 8Great Blue Herons, 5 Ospreys, a GreatEgrret and2 beavers!

Evidence of early raptor movementwas displayed by 4 Adult Bald Eag1es,a Red-tailed Hawk and an Ospreymoving southtogether over DruidCoun on8lZ9.

The newsletter editor will cer-tainly appreciaie all manner of callsand submissions of information forthe newsletter. Please call Brianweeknights between 6 pm and 10pm at 253-118 1 or send articles, Iocalbird sightings, information aboutbirds seen on vacations and such to104 Druid Court, Williamsburg, Va.23 185. This witl insure that our news-Ietter is a reflection of the member-ship. If you're not sure about what tosend, please call. Thank you!