by Jeff Beane
Every holiday season, tens of thousands of volunteers, mostly in the U.S. and Canada, but also in at least 15 other countries, brave cold, rain, wind and snow to participate in the Christmas Bird Count. The data they gather are used to assess the health of bird populations and guide conservation actions.
What they are
Sponsored by the National Audubon Society, Christmas Bird Counts are held each year between December 14th and January 5th. Their basic purpose is to census bird populations. Each regional count covers a “count circle” 15 miles in diameter, or about 177 square miles. Participants divide into small groups, and each group covers a specific assigned portion of the circle as thoroughly as possible. They identify and count, to the best of their ability, every bird seen during their 24 hour count date. Participants may count birds all day, or for only a few hours. Some prefer to watch their feeders and report those results. Usually one person serves as coordinator, organizing participation, compiling data, and submitting final results to National Audubon.
Young Naturalists participate in the count
How they started
Attitudes toward, and appreciation for, wildlife and conservation in this country have changed drastically over the years. In the 19th century, before there were laws protecting migratory birds, “side hunts” were a popular holiday tradition. Contestants would choose sides and see how many birds and other animals a team could shoot in a single day. Frank M. Chapman, a young ornithologist and early officer in the newly formed Audubon Society, was outraged by this senseless killing and waste of wildlife. In protest, on Christmas Day 1899, he counted live birds for three hours, publishing his results in the newly created Bird-Lore magazine (which later became Audubon), and encouraged other bird lovers to do the same. The next year, 1900, the first national count was held, with 27 participants counting in 25 locations across the U.S. and Canada.
Each year since then, the Christmas Bird Counts, or CBCs, have grown. Well over 2,000 regional counts are now held, with over 70,000 participants. About 40 are held in North Carolina. This year’s 116th annual count promises to be the biggest yet. The Raleigh CBC, sponsored by Wake Audubon, will be held on Saturday, 19 December 2015. Contact John Connors [email protected] or John Gerwin [email protected] if you would like to participate.
Why they’re important
CBCs are among the best data sources we have on bird populations. They can depict trends and population fluctuations over time. They are also the best-known citizen science projects in the world—allowing ordinary citizens to gather data that contribute to the overall body of our knowledge about birds. The counts certainly have their flaws and shortcomings. Not every part of a count circle can be covered. Certainly not every bird gets seen or identified. Large flocks can’t be counted precisely. It’s hard to be sure that some birds don’t get counted more than once. But the sheer volume of information and the consistency of holding the counts in the same places, during the same seasons, often with the same participants counting in the same fashion, year after year, make the data very valuable. Studies have shown that CBC data correlate closely with those gathered using more rigorous scientific methods. Hundreds of peer-reviewed articles have been published in scientific journals using analyses done with CBC data. State and federal agencies also use the information to make important bird conservation decisions.
Why they’re fun
CBCs are good opportunities to learn about birds from skilled and knowledgeable birders. They are also social events, where birders can make new friends, or spend time with old ones. These are the biggest reasons that many people participate. Many counts have special traditions, including lunches, dinners, and countdown parties during which data are compiled and stories are shared. Some even have their own T-shirts. The Raleigh CBC’s annual potluck dinner, the venison chili and pralines usually to be had at the Southern Pines count, and the Key lime pie and seafood featured at the tally rally following the Ocracoke and Portsmouth counts, will be enough to keep you coming back. But even better are the things you’ll see and learn, and the friends and memories you’ll make.
If you don’t know birds very well, you can still be placed with a team of good birders and help by spotting birds for them to identify, or by helping them keep their list. Birding with experts is one of the best ways to learn. Even if you don’t participate in an organized count or project, birding is fun and educational in its own right, and is one of the easiest outdoor activities to get interested in, because you can watch birds anywhere. A pair of binoculars and a good field guide are all you need to get started. And you have all year to learn and practice for those Christmas Counts!
Further Reading
Atlas of Wintering North American Birds: An Analysis of Christmas Bird Count Data by Terry Root, University of Chicago Press, 1988.
“Out for the Count” by Jeff Beane, Wildlife in North Carolina, December 2006.
Websites
National Audubon Society: Christmas Bird Count:
http://www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count
A group for bird lovers in the Carolinas:
Birding with a purpose—learn about bird citizen science projects:
http://birdsource.org/index.html
An online checklist program to count, report, and keep track of birds anytime, anywhere:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and information on many bird projects:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/allaboutbirds
By Fred J. Eckert
One of the best places in the United States and perhaps in the entire world to see – and photograph — a bountiful variety of incredibly colorful ducks is an easy day trip from anywhere in or near Wake County – only about an hour-and-a-half drive.
It constantly amazes me that so few of even the most avid birders in our area are aware of this fantastic attraction that lies so near to us.
Right now through mid-May are the months to savor these ducks — more than 100 species of them from all parts of the world — at their peak color.
Sylvan Heights Bird Park, located in the tiny northeast North Carolina rural town of Scotland Neck, a bit east of Rocky Mount between Tarboro and Roanoke Rapids on NC Route 258, is the largest bird park in North America and largest waterfowl park in the world.
This fascinating and fun park is home to more than 2,500 birds. Included among them are 18 endangered species; more than 30 species of very rare birds; all 8 swan species; 30 of the just over 30 species of geese and more than 100 species of ducks.
And it truly is a park as opposed to some tourist attraction that merely bills itself as a park. The pleasant, neat, well-maintained 18-acre park-like environment is well laid out in a double-8 clearly marked pathway and divided into sectors dedicated to each of the seven continents (except, because of climate, Antarctica) plus sections focused on exotic birds, finches, pheasant, flamingos and swans, geese and cranes.
King Eider at Sylvan Heights Bird Park. Photo by Fred Eckert
There is no other place in the country quite like SylvanHeights Bird Park where visitors can observe up-close, and sometimes even interact with, such an amazing array of exotic and/or endangered birds, ducks, geese and swan from all parts of the world.
Ruddy Duck at Sylvan Heights Bird Park. Photo by Fred Eckert
This great avian collection is the dream and culmination of a lifetime of work devoted to saving birds and waterfowl of Mike Lubbock who founded and directs this not-for-profit operation with his wife Ali and their son Brent and a small handful of staff and volunteers.
Widely recognized as the world’s leading expert on waterfowl, this farm boy from the Somerset area of England became fascinated with birds as a youth and began his career in ornithology at Britain’s prestigious Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust where he served first as a volunteer then as Curator and ultimately as Director of Aviculture. It’s also where he met his future wife, Ali, who was serving as a volunteer.
His rare talent for bird breeding — his successes where others had failed – became widely known and resulted in his being personally consulted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II who first turned to Mike for advice about her concern that the red-breasted geese among her bird collection at Buckingham Palace were reluctant to breed. The Queen followed his advice and one day she called Mike all excited about the change she credited him with bringing about. He became her go-to expert from then after.
Mike’s passion to preserve threatened waterfowl and other birds and promote conservation efforts has taken him all over the world and he has worked in this field he loves so much in both the UK and the USA. The International Wild Waterfowl Association, which inducted him into its Hall of Fame – they’ve also inducted Ali Lubbock — and bestowed upon him its most prestigious aviculture award, has said: “Mike Lubbock’s avicultural accomplishments on both sides of the Atlantic are legendary. He has brought many new species and new bloodlines in from the wild. He has accomplished many first breedings and he has been a source of bird and breeding advice to many.”
How Mike Lubbock path in life led him to realizing his and Ali’s dream of creating their own great avian collection park here in North Carolina is a long story and the subject of a recently released book, The Waterfowl Man of Sylvan Heights. What we Wake Audubon Society members need to know is that such a great birding experience that so few of us have been aware of for too long is so near-by and so well worth a visit.
The 18-acre park which is open to the public is an outgrowth of its adjacent 10-acre Breeding Center devoted to raising rare and endangered species of waterfowl. “The Park is designed to educate people about waterfowl and the importance of preserving them,” says Mike Lubbock. “Our goal is to tell visitors the story of every species–where it comes from, what habitat it prefers and why the species is important to our world. Visitors are also immersed into a wetland setting, so the feel and scope of a primary waterfowl habitat can be fully experienced.” Park generated revenue also helps fund the Breeding Center.
Among the many interesting facts about Sylvan Heights: It is credited with breeding 17 species of waterfowl for the first time in the world and 15 species for the first time in the North America and nearly one-third of the world’s once perilously endangered White-winged Wood Duck population reside here.
Naturally a place where visitors can come see waterfowl and other birds that include endangered and very rare species has to house them in a protective captive environment. For anyone who suggests that it is not a good thing to have birds in such a protected area, Mike Lubbock has a question: “Would you rather view an endangered species alive in a nice park-like environment such as Sylvan Heights Bird Park or dead in some museum?”
It is obvious that great thought and care have gone in to making Sylvan Heights the best possible experience both for those who visit it and for the birds and waterfowl who reside there. Besides being so pleasant and well-maintained the areas are extra good sized with exceptionally high nets. The water is very clear. The design is such as to insure maximum safety for the birds and waterfowl.
And here’s something truly smart that anyone who likes to photograph birds will appreciate: In places where otherwise you would normally expect to have to shoot through a wire fence, ruining any possibility of getting a very good photo, Sylvan Heights enables photographers to open an area in the fence that is wide enough to poke through a long lens and easily move it up or down and from side to side. You’ll need a key, which you can use while your driver’s license is held to insure its return – and there is a modest fee. I thought this was a fantastic plus but asked if it didn’t pose any risk of what was being photographed somehow escaping through the resulting temporary small hole in the fence. No chance – the design prevents such a possibility.
Yet another interesting feature of Sylvan Heights is that within the park you can also observe and photograph birds and waterfowl in the wild. At Beaver Pond Blind, which overlooks a wetland, as its name suggests you can observe and photograph looking out of one of its many blinds. The wheelchair accessible Treehouse is a large roofed viewing platform located over another, larger wetland.
The feature probably most popular with kids in the interactive Landing Zone, a good sized building where parakeets will fly to you if you have a seed stick and you can feed flamingoes out of your hand. Seed sticks for the parakeets and food for feeding to flamingoes cost $1 and are available in the Landing Zone or the Visitor Center gift shop. Besides a variety of parakeets and the American Flamingos inside The Landing Zone visitors encounter parrots, doves, pheasants, pigeons and the white-rumped shama, a small passerine bird.
Tours of Sylvan Heights Bird Park begin at the Visitors Center, where you can watch an introductory video and check out some displays, sometimes baby birds or waterfowl. Its Gift Shop is small but nice. Sylvan Park does not operate any food service – but this very-family-friendly attraction welcomes anyone to bring a picnic lunch and provides a playground for the kids and a couple of picnic areas. It’s only a few minutes’ drive to any one of several restaurants and fast-food outlets in town.
While anyone living in Wake County or close by can do Sylvan Heights as a day-trip, my wife and I opted to devote more time and were glad we did. Anyone who enjoys photographing beautiful birds, as I certainly do, really should devote more than just one day to this great experience and take advantage of being able to shoot different sections in different lighting conditions.
What we would not recommend doing is following the accommodations recommendations of some of the reservations booking sites. Most we checked recommended staying in Roanoke Rapids, Rocky Mount or Tarboro – and each place is a 30 to 40 minute commute to and from Sylvan Heights on small country roads that are pitch black at night and best avoided at night especially, say, during deer season.
We stayed in Scotland Neck at the Scotland Neck Inn which compares favorably to any of the recommend motels that require a long commute. It was comfortable, very clean, good service and it’s reasonably priced, offering a discount for Sylvan Heights visitors. It was hot when we visited the park and it was nice to be able to return to the motel and freshen up during our lunch breaks. There is also a bed-and-breakfast in town.
Not surprisingly there’s not much to do in a town so tiny that it does not have a single traffic light and which, except for a few familiar fast-food spots, looks pretty much as it did in the 1950’s.
What did surprise us, as it has others, is that tiny Scotland Neck has a restaurant serving such outstanding Italian food – LaCasetta. My wife and I know Italian food pretty well, having lived in Rome and having traveled throughout so much of Italy – and LaCasetta, operated by an Italian who hails from Sicily, is great!
For anyone who enjoys birds or anyone who just wants to try something different a visit to Sylvan Heights Bird Park is a wonderful experience. Pretty much everyone who visits it gives it rave reviews.
When’s the best time of year to visit? Anytime. Ducks are at their best colors right now, tropical birds during the summer months.
For more information about Sylvan Heights – including information about its hours, fees, events and its various educational programs – visit its website by clicking here.
Authored by Jeff Beane
On Friday-Sunday, 13-15 November, Wake Audubon held its Alligator River Adventure trip, a joint field trip between and Wake Audubon and the Museum of Natural Sciences, usually offered every two to three years. Trip leaders were Jerry Reynolds and Jeff Beane. Also participating were Herb Amyx, Pat Amyx, Betty Lou Chaika, David Chaika, Dan Harvey, Sue Harvey, Cindy Lincoln, Mary Martorella, Ann McCormick, Betsy McCormick, Betty Ann O’Brien, Adair Pickard, Louise Romanow, Mary Ann Rood, and Bill Swallow.
Birders on the Alligator River field trip
Our itinerary included Alligator River, Pea Island, and Pocosin Lakes national wildlife refuges; Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve; Cape Hatteras National Seashore; Pettigrew and Jockey’s Ridge state parks; and a few other stops.
We left from the Museum’s Research Lab at 10 a.m. Friday morning, and returned at about 6 p.m. Sunday evening. We had good weather—sunny to partly cloudy and somewhat unseasonably warm. We identified 107 vertebrate species, including at least 83 birds, nine mammals, seven reptiles, five amphibians, and three fishes. A few other species were glimpsed but not positively identified. Highlights included good looks at several black bears, at least a dozen species each of waterfowl and shorebirds, good looks at American white pelicans and bald eagles, a few late-season reptiles basking, and a fresh road-killed mink. Bill glimpsed a short-eared owl, but he was the only one to see it. We stayed at the Comfort Inn in Nags Head, where some of us could see many species from out our motel room windows, and we enjoyed picnic and fast food lunches and fine dinner dining at Basnight’s Lone Cedar and La Fogata Mexican restaurants. Good times were had by all.
American Oystercatcher at Oregon Inlet
Dunlin at Oregon Inlet
Sanderlings on the beach at Pea Island NWR
Savannah Sparrow at Pea Island NWR
A Red-tailed Hawk at Alligator River sizes up the Museum bus: Nope; a little too large to handle as prey.
Boat-tailed Grackle at the Nags Head Comfort Inn
Bears! How fortunate that there are still places left for them in our world, and the Albemarle Peninsula is one such place. The group was afforded good looks at several on this trip.
The dune-sheltered maritime forest and interdunal freshwater ponds at Nags Head Woods provide unique habitat for species like the Marbled Salamander and Southern Cricket Frog, which are common on the mainland but unable to survive on most of the Outer Banks.
Black-bellied Plover on beach at Pea Island NWR
Ruddy Turnstone on beach at Pea Island NWR
Willet on beach at Nags Head
Forster’s Tern on beach at Nags Head
Green Treefrog finds refuge in a PVC pipe at Nags Head Woods
The weather was warm enough for this Banded Water Snake and Red-bellied Water Snake to seek some late-season sun along the Pocosin Lakes Visitor Center boardwalk.
* = observed only as dead-on-road (DOR) or otherwise dead specimens.
Not all species were seen by all members of the group; some may have been seen by only one or two people.
Strongylura marina Atlantic Needlefish (at least 2)
Cyprinodon variegatus Sheepshead Minnow (many)
Gambusia holbrooki Eastern Mosquitofish (many)
Amphibians
Ambystoma opacum Marbled Salamander (4 adults)
Bufo [Anaxyrus] [cf. americanus x terrestris] “American/Southern Toad” (1 adult female)
Acris gryllus Southern Cricket Frog (at least 2)
Hyla cinerea Green Treefrog (a few)
Rana catesbeiana [Lithobates catesbeianus] American Bullfrog (at least 2 or 3)
Reptiles
Chrysemys p. picta Eastern Painted Turtle (several)
Clemmys guttata Spotted Turtle (at least 1)
Pseudemys rubriventris Red-bellied Cooter (many)
Trachemys s. scripta Yellow-bellied Slider (many)
Nerodia erythrogaster Red-bellied Water Snake (1 adult)
Nerodia fasciata Banded Water Snake (1 adult)
Thamnophis s. sauritus Eastern Ribbon Snake (1 small adult male DOR) *
Aix sponsa Wood Duck (at least 7)
Anas acuta Northern Pintail (several)
Anas americana American Widgeon (many)
Anas clypeata Northern Shoveler (many)
Anas crecca Green-winged Teal (many)
Anas discors Blue-winged Teal (at least 1)
Anas platyrhynchos Mallard (many)
Anas rubripes American Black Duck (many)
Anas strepera Gadwall (many)
Branta canadensis Canada Goose (many)
Cygnus columbianus Tundra Swan (many)
Lophodytes cucullatus Hooded Merganser (a few)
Oxyura jamaicensis Ruddy Duck (many)
Colinus virginianus Northern Bobwhite (at least 6-7)
Meleagris gallopavo Wild Turkey (at least 27)
Podilymbus podiceps Pied-billed Grebe (many)
Morus bassanus Northern Gannet (many)
Phalacrocorax auritus Double-crested Cormorant (many)
Pelecanus erythrorhynchos American White Pelican (many)
Pelecanus occidentalis Brown Pelican (many)
Ardea alba Great Egret (many)
Ardea herodias Great Blue Heron (many)
Egretta thula Snowy Egret (a few)
Egretta tricolor Tricolored Heron (a few)
Eudocimus albus White Ibis (many)
Cathartes aura Turkey Vulture (many)
Coragyps atratus Black Vulture (several)
Accipiter cooperii Cooper’s Hawk (at least 1 or 2)
Accipiter striatus Sharp-shinned Hawk ( at least 2 or 3)
Buteo jamaicensis Red-tailed Hawk (many)
Circus cyaneus Northern Harrier (many)
Haliaeetus leucocephalus Bald Eagle (several)
Falco sparverius American Kestrel (many)
Fulica americana American Coot (at least 1)
Rallus limicola Virginia Rail (several heard; at least 2 seen)
Charadrius semipalmatus Semipalmated Plover (at least 1)
Charadrius vociferus Killdeer (many)
Pluvialis squatarola Black-bellied Plover (many)
Haematopus palliatus American Oystercatcher (at least 2)
Recurvirostra americana American Avocet (many)
Arenaria interpres Ruddy Turnstone (several)
Calidris alba Sanderling (many)
Calidris alpina Dunlin (many)
Calidris canutus Red Knot (1)
Tringa flavipes Lesser Yellowlegs (many)
Tringa melanoleuca Greater Yellowlegs (many)
Tringa semipalmata Willet (many)
Chroicocephalus philadelphia Bonaparte’s Gull (several)
Larus argentatus Herring Gull (many)
Larus delawarensis Ring-billed Gull (many)
Larus marinus Great Black-backed Gull (many)
Leucophaeus atricilla Laughing Gull (many)
Sterna forsteri Forster’s Tern (many)
Thalasseus maximus Royal Tern (several)
Columba livia Rock Pigeon (many)
Zenaida macroura Mourning Dove (many)
Asio flammeus Short-eared Owl (1)
Megaceryle alcyon Belted Kingfisher (at least 2)
Colaptes auratus Northern Flicker (several)
Melanerpes carolinus Red-bellied Woodpecker (several)
Sayornis phoebe Eastern Phoebe (a few)
Corvus brachyrhynchos American Crow (many)
Corvus ossifragus Fish Crow (at least 1)
Cyanocitta cristata Blue Jay (at least 2)
Tachycineta bicolor Tree Swallow (many)
Poecile carolinensis Carolina Chickadee (several)
Cistothorus palustris Marsh Wren (at least 1)
Thryothorus ludovicianus Carolina Wren (several)
Troglodytes aedon House Wren (at least 1)
Turdus migratorius American Robin (several)
Dumetella carolinensis Gray Catbird (a few)
Mimus polyglottos Northern Mockingbird (many)
Sturnus vulgaris European Starling (many)
Bombycilla cedrorum Cedar Waxwing (several)
Setophaga coronata Yellow-rumped Warbler (many)
Melospiza melodia Song Sparrow (a few)
Passerculus sandwichensis Savannah Sparrow (many)
Zonotrichia albicollis White-throated Sparrow (at least 1 or 2)
Cardinalis cardinalis Northern Cardinal (a few)
Agelaius phoeniceus Red-winged Blackbird (many)
Quiscalus major Boat-tailed Grackle (many)
Sturnella magna Eastern Meadowlark (many)
Carpodacus mexicanus House Finch (a few)
Didelphis virginiana Virginia Opossum (many DOR en route) *
Ursus americanus American Black Bear (at least 6-7)
Procyon lotor Common Raccoon (several DOR) *
Mephitis mephitis Striped Skunk (1 adult DOR en route) *
Neovison [Mustela] vison Mink (1 adult female DOR) *
Urocyon cinereoargenteus Gray Fox (at least 1 or 2 DOR en route) *
Sciurus carolinensis Eastern Gray Squirrel (several alive and DOR)
Odocoileus virginianus White-tailed Deer (many alive and DOR, mostly en route)
Megaptera novaeangliae Humpback Whale (remains of 1 dead on beach) *
Fishes: at least 3
Amphibians: at least 5
Reptiles: 7
Birds: at least 83
Mammals: at least 9
–Jeff Beane
Authored by Curtis Smalling, Audubon North Carolina. Referring to Audubon North Carolina’s campaign to help the Brown-headed Nuthatch. Thanks to Wake Audubon members and friends for doing our part to make this happen.
We did it!
Together, we have put up 10,000 new Brown-headed Nuthatch nest boxes!
In 2013, we asked for your help to provide a good home for Brown-headed Nuthatches near you. Today, thanks to YOU, North Carolina has 10,000 more nest boxes to support this priority species.
This was a tremendous goal, and we met it in just two years! When Audubon North Carolina’s network comes together, we are able to make significant strides in bird conservation.
With amazing collaboration from individuals, Audubon Chapters, the Eastern Bluebird Rescue Group and bird stores across our state, we’ve been able to help this squeaky, southern bird find more places to call home and raise the next generation of nuthatches.
Learn about how our Chapters make a huge impact on this goal!
We met this amazing goal, but our work doesn’t stop at 10,000. As bird lovers, we need to create even more places for this squeaky little bird to call home as our state faces the growing impact of climate change.
During our campaign to put up more homes, we learned from Audubon’s Birds & Climate Change Report that 95% of the Brown-headed Nuthatch’s current summer range could be highly stressed by climate change by 2080. From 2 to 200 to 2,000 – every nest box installed helps build more bird-friendly communities across our state and helps this tiny southern bird find a home as our climate changes and their ranges shift.
Thank you again for welcoming the Brown-headed Nuthatch to your yard. Our southern hospitality is evident for this charming little bird.
DON’T REST NOW! We’ve still got more to do!
Now we need to monitor how all those nest boxes are being used. The next important step is to share your data! If you haven’t entered your nest box location online already, visit www.nestwatch.org. As breeding season gets going, enter data for any birds that nest in your box — House Wrens and Carolina Chickadees as well as Brown-headed Nuthatches. Even if you have only one or two observations to report, please share them so we can get a better idea of how our birds are doing. If you have trouble getting your data in, contact Kim Brand at [email protected].
Authored by John Connors
Friday, May 22, after a morning of banding birds, Eddie Owens and I were getting ready to hop in our cars when he pointed to a small group of swifts circling above the Chimney Swift Roost Tower at Prairie Ridge Ecostation in west Raleigh.
As we watched, one of the birds took a quick turn and disappeared down the mouth of the chimney. We were thrilled to confirm reports from others that swifts had discovered our tower. But this wasn’t the first bit of good news Wake Audubon had received about swifts this spring.
Earlier in May, I watched four chimney swifts circle over an information kiosk at Anderson Point Park in east Raleigh. The swifts were noisy and clearly eyeing the structure. Of course this wasn’t just any old information kiosk; it was one Wake Audubon had commissioned several years ago to be built by an Eagle Scout, and it had a swift nesting chimney installed as its center.
Soon the birds circled higher, and I was able to watch a swift fly through the top of a tall maple to grab dead twigs. They returned to the kiosk. One of the swirling swifts raised its wings high, slowed down, and descended into the chimney’s center. It was the first confirmation that swifts are using the kiosk for nesting!
All of this began with Wake Audubon’s ambitious undertaking to install the Chimney Swift Roost Tower at Prairie Ridge Ecostation, a field research and education center for the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.
We spent three years planning and raising funds for the $36,000 project. More than 150 of you bought inscribed bricks. We secured donations from the Carolina Bird Club and the estate of Vicki Weiss, as well as grants from the Toyota TogetherGreen by Audubon program. Frank Harmon Associates donated design services and Custom Brick & Supply of Raleigh donated the bricks. Installation of the tower was completed in November.
The tower is one of just a few large brick chimneys that have been built specifically for roosting swifts in the eastern U.S. We think it is, in fact, one of only three. Our tower is large: 30 feet tall with a 5-foot by 5-foot opening, designed to accommodate thousands of roosting swifts. There are portholes for looking inside the tower and for installing cameras and scientific equipment. We are hopeful, but there are no guarantees with these things.
Of course we did our homework, which meant contacting Paul and Georgeann Kyle in Austin, Texas, who established a chimney swift research center in Austin and spearheaded the chimneyswifts.org website. They have years of experience experimenting with the design of swift nesting structures, including the practical swift nesting information kiosk that proved successful at Anderson Point Park. And they have had some success with small roosts.
With the tower completed, our attention turns to celebrating it with you, together with experts from across North America who have tirelessly worked to conserve this species of concern. In March, Wake Audubon received a Toyota TogetherGreen Alumni Award to host a chimney swift conservation forum and workshop.
When we began thinking about hosting a forum, our first invitation was sent to the Kyles, who agreed to be our featured speakers and will give an overview of their decades spent working with swifts. But there will be more, much more.
Researchers from UNC Chapel Hill will offer a three-dimensional look at the flight patterns of swift flocks filmed flying above downtown Raleigh; Amy Weidensaul and Brian Shema from Audubon Pennsylvania will discuss educational programming at swift roosts; Charles Collins, a retired biologist from California, will compare swifts from around the world, and Larry Schwitter will describe Vaux’s Happenings in Washington state. Audubon NC plans to highlight chimney swifts across the state next year.
Join us Friday evening, August 21, at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences for the symposium. On Saturday, August 22, Wake Audubon will partner with the museum to host the Chimney Swift Family Festival at Prairie Ridge Ecostation — our official celebration of the completion of the Chimney Swift Roost Tower. This will be a family-friendly event starting mid-afternoon. The festivities will include games for all ages, such as a roost-hole corn-hole contest, swift nest and mask making, and catch-a penny stealer bug chase games. (Intrigued? We know you are!) We will also have educational tables, arts and crafts, food trucks, music, guided hikes, and a roost viewing as the sun sets. Sunday at dusk, join us for swift roost viewings at other county sites.
Details on these events will be posted here, on our Celebrate Swifts page. All are free admission.
We can use volunteer help at Family Festival. Please contact us at [email protected] if you are able to help. And please plan to attend the Friday chimney swift forum the Saturday family festival and the Sunday swift viewing the weekend of August 21-23.
We focus on the Chimney Swift because this species lives across the eastern half of North America. We are working to protect this species, which is threatened by loss of nesting and roosting habitat. But there are three other species of swifts in North America. What about them? Our symposium on August 21st will provide more information on all the American swifts. Here is some background information.
In western America there are no Chimney Swifts (maybe a few wanderers), however, there are three other swift species: Vaux’s, White-throated, and Black Swifts. Vaux’s Swifts, Chaetura vauxi , breed in the Pacific Northwest – British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. They nest in hollows of large trees, a resource that is disappearing as old growth forests continue to be logged. They have also started nesting in chimneys. This is the same story as we have with the Chimney Swifts. The Vaux’s Swifts migrate to their wintering habitat in Central America and Venezuela. During their migration, large flocks of up to 20,000 birds can be seen entering large chimneys along the route. A popular viewing site is in Portland, Oregon. Visit the Audubon Portland website to learn more and see more pictures of the Vaux’s Swift.
Vaux’s Swift photo by Tom Johnson
White-throated Swift’s, Aeronautes saxatalis, breed in the Rocky Mountains and high plains of America. Unlike the Chimney and Vaux’s Swifts, the White-throated Swifts build their nests on the sides of cliffs and roost in large groups in the fissures of cliff faces during migration. Their wintering grounds are in the Southwestern US, Mexico and Central America.
White-throated Swift photo by Michael Woodruff
The Black Swift, Cypseloides niger, is the largest swift, but its population is the smallest. They can be found nesting on cliffs from the American plains to the Pacific Ocean. They even nest on the rock cliffs behind waterfalls. They are mostly found in British Columbia, but local populations exist throughout the western US. Recent information puts their wintering grounds in Brazil. Although we focus mainly on the Chimney Swift, you can learn more about all of the swift species at Wake Audubon’s Swift Symposium. Please join us on Friday, August 21st from 6-9 pm at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.
Black Swift photo by Manuel Martin
By Bob Oberfelder
Lake Betz is a unique habitat with a huge concentration of Red-headed Woodpeckers. It is located behind the Cisco Systems and Network Appliance facilities between Louis Stephens Drive and Kit Creek Road (in the Research Triangle Park area). The safest place to park is in a gravel covered recreation parking lot off of Louis Stephens Drive. There are Port-a-potties there as well as some volleyball nets. If you walk across Louis Stephens Drive from the recreation area you will see an asphalt trail that leads over to the lake and swamp area.
There is a small lake here and adjacent to the lake is a swampy area filled with dead snags that have attracted large numbers of Red-headed Woodpeckers. It is possible to encounter as many as 7 woodpecker species in a single visit in this area in the winter. I have observed nesting Osprey, Northern Flickers, Red-headed Woodpeckers, Brown-headed Nuthatches, Common Grackles and Tree swallows. Large numbers of Green Herons appear to spend their summers here. During a recent visit, late May 2015, I saw a Great-crested Flycatcher and Belted Kingfishers are a common year-round sight. For people interested in photography, it is possible to get quite close to the birds since they frequent the foliage between the lake and the swampy area and many of the snags frequented by the woodpeckers are close to the walking trail. I am including a few recent photos taken at Lake Betz to wet your appetite for this unique place.
Great-Crested Flycatcher
Northern Flicker (yellow-shafted)
Osprey
Red-Headed Woodpecker
Green Heron
Authored by Bob Oberfelder
If you find photographs of birds engaging, viewing the award winners from the Audubon photography competition will be rewarding. Some of the birds are exotic and others are common, but the photos are all extraordinary. If you view the winners at the link Audubon Photo Winners you will be as impressed as I am with the quality of these pictures. The photographers have revealed the personas of the birds they have digitally captured. These pictures are a result of the confluence of an artistic eye, careful assessments of the lighting conditions, patience in getting the ideal pose, and high quality photographic equipment. The winners deserve accolades for the quality of their submissions, but I suspect even the average submission is worthy of praise.
If you wish to see photos from Wake Audubon field trips and activities, they can be viewed using the following link: Wake Audubon Photos. Though the quality of these photos in not in a class with the winners, they display the birds and other wildlife that have been seen on Wake Audubon field trips. Perhaps you will find them engaging enough to entice you to join us on one of our upcoming field trips.
Authored by Gerry Luginbuhl
The Wildlife Diversity staff with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission have submitted a proposal to the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners to manage 1,645 acres of the 2,800 acre former Voice of America (VOA) site. This former transmission facility is the largest expanse of contiguous grassland in North Carolina. The transfer of these acres to the NC Wildlife Resources Commission will, for the first time, allow the public access to the only robust population of breeding Henslow’s Sparrows in the eastern Unite States. The VOA closed in 2006 and is now disposing of the land. Beaufort County has been given first option to develop a parks and recreation plan for the entire site, and the Wildlife Commission’s proposal will complement active recreation facilities which may occur on the remaining acreage.
To read more about the proposed development of the former Voice of America site and to learn what you can do the protect this valuable resource, please visit our Advocacy page.
Authored by Gerry Luginbuhl
The Wildlife Diversity staff with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission have submitted a proposal to the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners to manage 1,645 acres of the 2,800 acre former Voice of America (VOA) site. This former transmission facility is the largest expanse of contiguous grassland in North Carolina. The transfer of these acres to the NC Wildlife Resources Commission will, for the first time, allow the public access to the only robust population of breeding Henslow’s Sparrows in the eastern Unite States. The VOA closed in 2006 and is now disposing of the land. Beaufort County has been given first option to develop a parks and recreation plan for the entire site, and the Wildlife Commission’s proposal will complement active recreation facilities which may occur on the remaining acreage.
To read more about the proposed development of the former Voice of America site and to learn what you can do the protect this valuable resource, please visit our Advocacy page.
