The Wake Audubon Society Blog

February 3, 2012

Annual Great Backyard Bird Count Is this Month

Filed under: Bird Counts, Birds — kwouk @ 6:00 pm

Audubon, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Bird Studies Canada are bringing us the 15th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count February 17th through February 20th. We can all participate; it is easy to involve your whole family in this fun activity. Pick a place to watch birds; your yard or a park are popular choices. Some folks travel to a state park or other special places to bird. Count all the birds you see that you can identify. You can watch for 15 minutes or for the whole weekend. Just keep a record of the birds and the time and place. Then go online and enter your results. Here is the official website where you can find more information and learn how to share your results: http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/. When you are on the website, you can also see the information that others have submitted. You can explore the data to learn more about the birds that interest you. For example, you can see where Cardinals are; or how many others have submitted observations from North Carolina.
Not only is this an enjoyable birding activity, the data collected become part of a large U.S. and Canadian database that provides a snapshot of the prevalence of each bird species at this mid-winter point in time. Some of the questions that scientists are using these data to investigate are the effects of bird diseases on birds in different regions, differences in bird diversity and number in urban,suburban, and rural areas; and changes in the timing of bird migrations. Let’s get out and count some birds!

Carolina Chickadee, Photo by Ken Childs taken in Tennessee and submitted to the 2011 GBBC photo contest.

-Gerry Luginbuhl, President, Wake Audubon Society

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January 9, 2012

Volunteer with Wake Audubon!

Filed under: Bird of the Year, Membership, Wake Audubon Updates — kwouk @ 12:15 pm

24-hour Grand Opening of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences Nature Research Center

Volunteers are needed to staff the Wake Audubon Society booth for the opening of the Nature Research Center, which is being held on April 20-21. The booth will focus on the chimney swift fundraising/education efforts. This booth will have both educational elements (faux chimney that opens up to show you a swift at a nest) as well as a fun game or two (chimney swift bean bag toss into a chimney, like the corn-hole game everyone is playing these days). We will have prizes, an educational activity packet designed by Annie Runyan for sale, etc. WAS will have a booth on Saturday, April 21 from 8 am-6 pm. The Museum expects 100,000 visitors at the NRC opening.

Prior to the event, WAS needs help on this event committee.

If you would like to help with the event and/or serve on the event committee, please contact Anita Kuehne at ats9397@yahoo.com

The new 80,000 square-foot wing of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences will connect people to research by bringing scientists and their work into the public eye, helping demystify what can be an intimidating field of study, better prepare science educators and students, and inspire a new generation of young scientists.
The mission of the NRC is “Connecting People to Research.”

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December 2, 2011

“Continuing Surprises”

Filed under: Nature Notes — kwouk @ 7:05 pm

Early in August, my husband and I traveled to the old family homestead, which is located deep in the mountains of western Pennsylvania. It is a lovely getaway, with active trains passing by at different times of the day. We do a lot of birding up there during our stays and have seen some life birds there too. The “Big Deal” every morning/evening while you are there, is to go outside and wave at the passengers of the Amtrak coaches.

One morning, while drinking my cup of espresso on the front porch, we noticed these beautiful butterflies flying/landing on the railing. They were black/blue and marked very prettily. We watched them for over an hour and my husband took their picture. I have guessed that they were Dark Swallowtails. Then during lunchtime we noticed this other odd looking thing on the plants which I have been told was a Butterfly Moth. Again, my husband took its picture. Then during the afternoon, as we exit the stonecutter’s sales shop, my husband spotted this female Killdeer on a nest in his front yard. We did not want to disturb her but she surely made us aware she was not happy with him taking her picture!

Since that day, I now search for large & small butterflies everywhere we go. My new butterflies field guide is always with my birding guide. While outdoors enjoying nature, it is now more fun for us, with or without birds present. Guess I’ve been a little slow to catch on with butterflies, but I have added them to my birding walks. “You are never too old to learn something new and have fun at it”. Oh, Oh! I just saw a dragonfly!!!

Angie DeLozier

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November 17, 2011

Injured Wildlife, Oh No!

Filed under: Nature Notes — kwouk @ 2:01 pm

It is an unfortunate consequence of human’s dominion over nature that sometimes wildlife is harmed. Luckily for us, we have some local resources that can help injured wildlife. It seems like I am always coming across some poor bird or other critter that is in obvious distress.
NC State Vet School’s Turtle Team will accept all injured herps (reptiles and amphibians). They are wonderful! They even let you release the animal back where you found it once it is healed. I once found a box turtle at Anderson Point Park (our Adopt-A-Park) with an aural swelling. I was leading a bird walk at the time-I am sure the participants thought I was crazy! I brought him to Turtle Hospital (at the NCSU Vet School Animal Emergency Clinic) and hoped he would be OK. Months later I get a call that he’s ready to go home! It was such a delight to pick him up and bring him back to Anderson Point Park. I watched as he wandered off towards the point and wished him luck.
Once I hit a toad with my bicycle and injured his eye. I brought him to the Turtle Team and time faded away. About a year later I get another call. Unbelievable, Genghis Toad was ready to go home. I’m not sure why he got that particular moniker (he was a small toad) but I thought it was pretty cute that he had been named. He had been living and recuperating with one of the vet students. He was blind in the injured eye but was a good eater so it was time to come home. I let him go in my backyard, just a short distance from where his injury had taken place.
Other animals can be taken to Triangle Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. I have brought them birds and bunnies. They will accept all native wildlife. They will also allow you to release the animal back where it was found which is vital for the animal’s success.
Some tips if you find an injured animal:
-Be very careful handling injured wildlife. You do not want to get bit!
-Do not offer food or water.
-Keep animal in a ventilated cardboard box in a warm, dark, quiet area away from children and pets.
-Please support the institution with a donation. I read once that it costs, on average, $40 to rehabilitate an injured animal, so I always write a check for $40 with each animal I bring to a rehabber.
One other very important thing to keep in mind is that many of the animals that are brought in to these clinics are injured by cats!! Please do your part to keep wildlife (and cats!) safe; keep your cat indoors!
Contact information:
NCSU Turtle Team: 919-513-6500
Triangle Wildlife: 919-544-3330
Thanks for doing your part to keep our wild animals safe and happy!—Kari Wouk, WAS Board Member

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May 24, 2011

Mysterious Carolina Bay Lakes Excursion

Filed under: Field Trips, Young Naturalists Club — update @ 10:35 am

By Sean Higgins, Wake Audubon Board member

In April, 15 teens joined the Mysterious Carolina Bay Lakes excursion cosponsored by the Wake Audubon Young Naturalists and the Museum of Natural Sciences Junior Curators. Many people generously contributed resources, time and energy to make this a Spring Break to remember for these youth.

Lynn Cross has an absolutely amazing rapport with high school students (not to mention her expertise in the art of smores)! Big props to staff at Singletary Lake State Park and Lake Waccamaw State Park. Staff of both went way out of their way to accommodate our group and make us feel quite welcome… despite both parks having major events on the same days including a county-wide Environmental Field Day at Lake Waccamaw. Ranger Lane Garner gave a great overview of “What is a Carolina Bay?”, Superintendent Chris Helms guided us in a freshwater mussel survey, and I&E Specialist Brittany Whitaker guided night activities. We even had an impromptu live alligator program onboard the bus when N.C. Museum of Forestry educator Kellie Lewis flagged us down on the side of the road.

Who knows where Spring Break 2012 could take these groups? Bear Island? A river trip? Or will the groups brave the unpredictable spring weather in the mountains?

You are receiving this email because you play a valuable role in these programs, perhaps behind the scenes. Cheers to a new generation of conservationists!

Canoeing at Singletary Lake. With the fierce wind, we made it all the way around the lake in about 2 1/2 hours. Next time we’ll bring a catamaran.

Collecting and observing aquatic critters as the sun sets on Singletary Lake. You can almost hear the voice of Otis Redding through the trees.

Add Tidewater Fatmucket to your life list!

Don’t pick up hitchhikers… especially the crocodilian kind.

Log… log… log… whoa, there’s a gator!

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April 1, 2011

The Evolution of Darwin’s Finches

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: events — update @ 4:04 pm

by Nathan Swick, Wake Audubon Board member

A talk that may be of interest to birders in the area is coming to the Museum of Natural Sciences. Legendary evolutionary biologists Peter and Rosemary Grant present highlights of their life’s work on in a free program in the auditorium at 7 pm on April 11.

Peter Grant is professor emeritus of zoology, and Rosemary Grant is a retired senior research scholar, both in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton. In their dogged study of a population of birds popularly known as “Darwin’s finches,” the Grants have won renown for detecting and recording evolution in action, and proving and extending the theories of pioneering evolutionist Charles Darwin, work for which they were recently awarded the prestigious Kyoto Prize.

For much of the public, the work of the Grants first came to light in Jonathan Weiner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning account of their efforts, “The Beak of the Finch.” Published in 1994, the book detailed the couple’s arduous, yearly six-month stay in tents on Daphne Major, a desolate volcanic island 600 miles west of Ecuador. There, since 1973, they have undertaken what was described in Weiner’s book as one of the most intensive and valuable animal studies ever conducted in the wild.

“We choose a single group of related species for close scrutiny,” the Grants wrote, “and attempt to answer the following questions: Where did they come from, how did they diversify, what caused them to diversify as much as they did (and no more) and over what period of time did this happen?” What the Grants have shown through their relentless study and cataloging of 14 varieties of island finches is how beak size and shape evolve through natural selection within a dramatically changing environment, according to certain mechanisms and conditions.

This presentation is made possible through a partnership between the Museum, North Carolina State University’s WM Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, and the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent).

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