They not only stare at them, they eat them. Well, maybe not all trees, but woody browse in general. Hopefully, this penchant for woody invasives like Canada blackberry will make goats the perfect organic weed-whacker for protecting the grassy balds of the Roan Highlands.

The Baa-tany Project is a volunteer-based project operating under a special use permit with the USDA Forest Service. The idea is to use goats — in this case angora goats — to help restore the grassy balds of Roan. The project covers about 79 acres between Jane Bald and Grassy Ridge. Partners for the project include USDA Forest Service, East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Southern Appalachians Highlands Conservancy, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Friends of Roan Mountain, North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, Tennessee Division of Natural Areas, Tennessee Eastman Hiking & Canoeing Club, Wake Forest University, The Nature Conservancy and Appalachian State University.

The origin of these balds, like many across the Southern Appalachians, remains a mystery. We know they were here to greet the first Europeans. John Fraser wrote about them in 1787 and Asa Gray, for whom the imperiled Gray’s lily is named, called them, in 1841, “the most beautiful east of the Rockies.” Besides Gray’s lily, there are at least 26 other species listed by the Federal government as, proposed, endangered, threatened or sensitive.

Some scientists believe the balds are remnants of ancient grasslands that evolved during the Pleistocene (from 1.6 million to 10,000 years ago) and perpetuated by the natural conditions of the southern highlands.

Others suggest that large herbivores like woolly mammoths may have helped create and sustain the balds, and that their successors including bison and elk helped maintain the balds. Some researchers believe Native Americans may have burned the high peaks regularly, thinning and altering the soil so that trees could not grow. Others believe the balds are simply the natural evolutionary results of the physical environmental (climatic and edaphic factors) processes of the southern highlands.

Whatever their origin, there is no doubt that balds have become an integral part of the environmental and cultural fabric of the Southern Appalachians. The Baa-tany Project marshaled and herded by Jamey Donaldson, botanist, consultant and adjunct curator of the John C. Warren Herbarium at East Tennessee State University, is a unique experiment integrating and involving the human psyche (through the herder and his goats) in a healing restorative process that may say as much about the environmental struggles of the human condition as it does about the environmental challenges of the high grasslands.

To find out more about the Baa-tany Project go to http://friendsofroanmtn.org/ goat%20project/goat%20project.html. And if you hurry, you may even be able to join the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy for a goat-viewing hike on Roan Mountain. Today is the last day to RSVP — so call 828.253.0095, ext. 205 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Don Hendershot can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The girls love to surprise Mom with bouquets of wildflowers. The other day they came in with a handful of one of my favorites, bee balm. Monarda didyma, bee balm or Oswego tea, is a striking perennial wildflower common across much of the eastern U.S.

It is in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It exhibits the common mint characteristics of square stem and opposite leaves. It grows to three feet tall where it is topped by a rich red, round flowering head. The head or cyme may be up to four inches across composed of several tubular flowers arrayed in a circle.

Bee balm likes moist soil and is pretty shade tolerant. It is often found along wooded stream banks in Western North Carolina but also makes its way to road shoulders (especially the Blue Ridge Parkway) and the edges of openings and spoil areas.

I asked Izzy to show me where she got her bee balm and she led me down a dim path in the woods along the little stream that borders our yard. Bee balm, like all mints, spreads by rhizomes and often forms small colonies.

After a hundred yards or so down the trail, Izzy stopped. “It’s around here somewhere,” she said, “just look for the flowers.” And sure enough, about 20 or 30 yards ahead of us a couple of dozen scarlet inflorescences glowed from the shadowy forest.

While bee balm is shade tolerant, it also thrives in full sun and has many landscape applications. It blooms from late June through August and makes a great perennial border and/or adds color to any wildflower garden. It also attracts pollinators like hummingbirds, butterflies and bees and can be a colorful and useful addition in your vegetable garden.

Bee balm, like most colony forming plants, will, over time, begin to thin in the center. You can avoid this and keep your colony dense and beautiful by dividing the roots every two to three years. This is best done in fall or early spring. Dig up the rootstock and remove the older inner section, then replant the divisions a foot or so apart. Bee balm may be grown from seeds or rootstock.

Native Americans used bee balm for a variety of ailments like headache, fever, digestive problems and oral care. The antiseptic thymol, which is widely used in a variety of mouthwashes, occurs naturally in bee balm.

Before the colonists dumped King George’s tea in the Boston Harbor, the Oswego Indians were enjoying beverages brewed from Monarda didyma. The sudden shortage of tea led the colonists to embrace this beverage and thus Monarda didyma became Oswego or “liberty” tea. The name bee balm comes from the use of the crushed leaves of the plant to relieve the pain of bee stings.

Bee balm should be blooming now along the Parkway. It is generally quite prevalent around the Waynesville Overlook and in the vicinity of Big Witch Gap.

Don Hendershot can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

A sure bet

I’m sure that if you belong to any environmental/conservation organization or if you have donated to causes in the past or perhaps simply visited a website recently, you have received pleas for donations and/or instructions detailing ways you can assist the Gulf Coast in dealing with the impacts of the massive oil spill created and still being fueled by the blowout of British Petroleum’s (BP) Deepwater Horizon drill ship on April 20.

I have received solicitations and/or announcements through different venues, from The Nature Conservancy, Cornell Lab of Ornithology and N.C. Audubon. I have also seen dozens of other groups with online campaigns geared towards raising money for the Gulf Coast.

I know and you know groups like The Nature Conservancy, Audubon and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology do a lot of good work. Their resources afford them a place at the table when dealing with government bureaucracies and large corporations. But I often think of these and other large environmental groups as being a bit top heavy and wonder how much of the small donation I am able to give is eaten up in administrative, business-as-usual costs and how much gets to the heart of the problem.

With this thought in mind, I e-mailed the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Robert Barham. It just so happens that the secretary and I grew up about 12 miles apart in the farmlands of Northeast Louisiana – he in Oak Ridge and I in Mer Rouge. Barham’s reply was immediate, “We have a Foundation that assits our Department, and 100 percent of the money will be spent in Louisiana to help the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries recover from this event.”

That Foundation is the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation (LWFF). LWFF is a “friends” organization like Friends of the Smokies that operates here in Waynesville. According to executive director Kell Mc Innis, LWFF was created in 1995, and “every dollar donated to LWFF is spent in Louisiana to assist the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries in their mission to protect Louisiana’s wildlife and fisheries resources.” Mc Innis also noted that you can earmark your donation specifically for oil spill mitigation. To do that at this time, you need to download a donation form from LWFF’s Website at http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/partners/foundation/ and check the box “in support of” and list oil spill. Mc Innis said that LWFF was working to update its online donation process to also allow this option.

Today the LDWF is working with state and federal agencies to assess habitat at risk from the oil spill, mobilize resources to try and protect habitat not already impacted, and join in coordinated efforts to rescue wildlife and rehabilitate animals that can be saved. According to e-mails LDWF also, “... continues to work with BP officials to ensure the safety of Louisiana’s seafood.”

But today’s efforts may be only the tip of the iceberg. The e-mail states, “Louisiana has faced many natural disaster storm events/hurricanes and the wildlife and fisheries resources have recovered in relatively short time spans. This man-made event and the scope of the impacts it presents are a challenge beyond anything the state has seen from an environmental, economic and/or life changing perspective — especially for those in the fishing community.”

Mc Innis said that the long-term far-reaching effects of the oil spill make LWFF an especially good choice for your charitable donations because the foundation was created to assist Louisiana’s wildlife and fisheries, and that is their singular mission.

Don Hendershot can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Still soaring after all these years

Eagle Lady Doris Mager enjoyed a “rock star” reception last Friday (6/18) at the Waynesville public library. But instead of overage adolescents flicking bics and shouting “Freebird,” Mager and her friend E.T. (Extra Terrific), a 27-year-old great-horned owl, were welcomed by enthusiastic toddler-screams of “owwwlll! owwwlll!”

Fifty or more people — the majority under 10 years of age — filled the library’s meeting room to see and learn about her feathered friends. And while the room was filled with the kind of energy and excitement that only toddlers can bring to a confined space, once Mager and her birds took center stage I have to say, I’ve never seen that many young minds that focused for that long.

Of course, Mager is a pro. She has been an avid avian advocate for more than four decades. It began in Maitland, Fla., where Mager worked for the Florida Audubon Society. Her efforts, including spending six nights and seven days in an abandoned bald eagle nest, helped raise money for an aviary to care for injured raptors. That aviary underwent a $2 million facelift and reopened in 2001 as the Audubon National Center for Birds of Prey. The facility has treated 10,000 or so injured birds of prey since its inception in 1979.

Mager left the Florida Audubon Society in 1983 to create the non-profit SOAR (Save Our American Raptors.) With her focus on children, Mager with her birds in her van crossed and crisscrossed the country from Cape Cod to Savannah, across Texas and New Mexico and the Carolinas presenting more than 200 programs a year at schools, libraries and other venues. For a short synopsis of Mager’s “bird life” go to http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/6_01/6_20_01/out_raptors.shtml to see an article I did in June 2001.

Mager was 74 when I interviewed her for that piece in 2001. She said then that she intended to “go till God gives me the sign.” It looks like “go” is the only sign she’s seen. And it was apparent last Friday that when it comes to raptors, Mager’s enthusiasm has not waned — even the toddlers were in awe. And, more importantly, they were listening.

A youngster asked Mager what someone his age could do to help birds. She responded, unhesitatingly, “leave them alone.” She explained that wild things are meant to be wild and unless an animal is sick or injured the very best thing one can do is to simply leave them alone.

Friday night at the dinner table my wife asked Maddy (our 4-year-old) what she learned at the library. With no coaching from dad, she responded, “Leave wild things alone.” Which is a great lesson for my girls right now, with a Carolina wren feeding fledglings in a hanging basket at our back door.

And while Friday’s program was geared to kids, it was quite informative and the facts were accurate. I noticed lots of adults paying attention and Mager does do programs for more sophisticated bird lovers. But if you have a budding birder or someone you want to introduce to the wonders of nature be sure to catch Mager and her friends at the Fines Creek library on Monday June, 28 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. She and E.T., Cara, a 34-year-old crested cara cara, plus a screech owl and an American kestrel, are sure to please.

Much of Mager’s tenure as “eagle lady” is recorded in the book RJ: Tribute to a Golden Eagle published in 1997 by Aquilla Press in Clyde.

Don Hendershot can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Skulker of the tangles

The other morning at 6 o’clock at Hickey Fork in the Pisgah National Forest’s Shelton Laurel Backcountry Area in Madison County, the loud ringing song of a Swainson’s warbler shattered the early morning stillness. The mnemonic for the Swainson’s song is “whee, whee, whee, whip-poor-will, chick.”

I’m not particularly good at hearing mnemonics in birdsong,but the three loud clear introductory notes (I would lengthen them to wheeee, wheeee, wheeee) of the Swainson’s are diagnostic. They are followed by a rapid jumble of notes that ends abruptly and “whip-poor-will, chit” seems as good as anything.

This LBJ (little brown job) is an uncommon skulker of dense rhododendron and mountain laurel tangles generally along creek banks in the mountains of Western North Carolina. I imagine it is initially checked on many birder’s life lists as “heard only.”

Beware if you dive into one of these rhododendron hells in search of a Swainson’s that sounds like it’s “right there.” This little ventriloquist will have you walking in circles as it sings from the ground and/or low in the bushes.

Swainson’s nest across the Southeastern United States and are most often associated with canebrakes. Although Audubon formally described the species in 1834 and named it after English naturalist William Swainson, it wasn’t documented in the Southern Appalachians until the 1930s. The move to the mountains is generally thought to be an extension of the bird’s coastal range with rhododendron slicks substituting for canebrakes.

While the Swainson’s is, indeed, a LBJ, it is a handsome LBJ. It is a warm olive-brown above with a russet cap and a whitish supercilium or eyebrow. It’s breast and belly is cream-colored with immature birds showing a yellowish wash.

In the winter the Swainson’s trades its New World tangles for similar habitat in exotic places like Jamaica, the Yucatan and the West Indies. It has a global conservation ranking of “G4” — “apparently secure.” It is listed as uncommon but not rare. It is state listed as “S3” — vulnerable. This is most likely due to loss and threatened continued loss of habitat.

While it takes patience and perseverance to get good looks at this secretive bird, you can increase your chances by visiting known locations. I heard at least three Swainson’s at Hickey Fork the other morning. We also regularly record Swainson’s at Boone Fork in the Grandfather Ranger District. Jocassee Gorges in South Carolina is said to have one of the densest population of breeding Swainson’s warblers in the region. They may also be found at the newly created Chimney Rock State Park and along Bull Pen road along the Chattooga River near Highlands.

Don Hendershot can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

uddling – a kaleidoscope adventure

Maddy (my 4-year-old) and I had been in the woods at Harmons Den checking on some bird points. We came out of the woods at the Harmons Den Horse Camp. At the intersection of Cold Springs Road (FS Rd. 148) and the entrance to the horse camp (FS Rd. 3526), there is an open area with picnic tables and a small gravel parking area. The horse camp road and the parking area were literally covered with butterflies. There were dozens of groups of butterflies of 10 or more on the ground and scores of more butterflies wafting, hovering and fluttering around.

This was the weekend after Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day weekend had been quite busy at Harmons Den with riders and their equine friends enjoying the many trails. The musky aroma of horse — sweat, urine and manure — still lingered and the butterflies were loving it.

Now some women hold in contempt what many males of the species consider if not epicurean delights at least tasty staples — things like cold pizza and warm beer, or orange juice out of the carton.

Well, male butterflies take these gourmand tendencies to a completely different level. Horse sweat appetizer followed by sun-baked manure accompanied by chateau equine urine, 2010 is a menu that male butterflies would (and may) die for.

And you know what, ladies? We do it all for you. In the case of the human species, it’s more an act of consideration — like cleaning out the fridge, getting rid of leftover beer or not dirtying the dishes. But in the case of the butterfly, it’s all about survival of the species.

While nectar provides nourishment and sugar, it is sorely lacking in the kind of nutrients needed for reproduction. Male butterflies — being male, after all, — take it upon themselves to gather these salts and minerals. These salts and minerals may be obtained in small quantities from sources like rotting fruit, tree sap, wet soil and dead plants. But none of these sources come close to the motherload of minerals offered by urine, feces and/or carrion.

The male ingests these nutrients then transfers them to the female in the form of spermataphores during copulation. These spermataphores enhance the viability of the female’s eggs helping to insure the survival of the species.

This act of congregating at one spot, whether it is a puddle, a moist area, a pile of dung or some carrion is known as puddling. Puddling is a male trait and while it is serious business for the species, the butterflies appear to shun the gravity of the situation and seem to be genuinely enjoying themselves — like when your boyfriend or husband is on the couch eating cold pizza and drinking warm beer and watching the Lakers and Celtics in the NBA Championship.

One name for a group of butterflies is a kaleidoscope. Kaleidoscope seems quite appropriate for the colorful congregation of butterflies Maddy and I encountered, which included eastern tiger swallowtails, red-spotted purples, eastern commas, question marks, summer (I think) azures and red admirals.

Because of the open areas, nearby woods and availability of horse-nutrients, the area around the Harmons Den Horse Camp is Lepidoptera heaven. To get there, take I-40 west to the Harmons Den exit (exit 7). Turn right onto Cold Springs Road. It’s about 3.7 miles to the entrance (FS road 3526) to the horse camp. The open area and parking lot are on your left at the intersection.

Don Hendershot can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I was heartened recently by two op-eds I read in area newspapers regarding industrial-sized wind turbines in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The reasoned commentaries were written by individuals with firsthand knowledge of science, the scientific method, Appalachian history, energy emissions and the environment.

The first commentary I saw, in the May 19 Asheville Citizen-Times, was written by John Droz Jr. of Morehead City and Greig, N.Y., and a frequent visitor to Asheville and WNC. He is a physicist and environmental activist. Droz believes critical thinking and common sense have been eschewed with regards to wind power for the sake of being green. He writes:

“As a physicist and long-time environmental advocate, I believe we need aggressive and meaningful changes in our state and federal energy policies. This urgency, though, shouldn’t mean we abandon critical thinking — in fact, it says the opposite. Citizens should be adamantly opposed to the ‘let’s do anything, just for the sake of doing something’ mentality. We simply can’t afford to be wasting time, money and effort on illusionary solutions — like some of the energy alternatives being promoted by lobbyists and others with self-serving agendas.

“In graduate school I learned the scientific method. This says that when a new idea is proposed as a potential solution to a problem, the proponents must prove its efficacy before it is accepted as legitimate. Here we have businessmen, profiteers, politicians, academia and well-intentioned environmentalists proposing wind power as a partial solution to global warming — so they must provide independent, objective, comprehensive proof that wind power is a viable solution. This has not happened.”

The other commentary was from Dave Erb, engineering professor at UNCA and executive committee chair of WENOCA (the local affiliate of the NC Chapter of the Sierra Club.) This op-ed originally appeared in the May 26 Mountain Express. Erb writes:

“At a November forum on wind power at UNCA, a young staffer from a regional activist group puffed that he had dedicated his life to fighting mountaintop-removal coal mining, blustering that he wasn’t about to let ‘these NIMBYs’ who oppose industrializing Western North Carolina’s ridge tops stand in his way. As a child of coal country, I share his anger over mountaintop-removal mining. But as a renewable-energy advocate with significant wind experience, I find his passion for utility-scale wind power in WNC sorely misplaced — and painfully ironic.”

I especially liked Erb’s response to the term NIMBY:

“Let’s be clear about the term NIMBY (‘not in my backyard’): It denotes someone trying to stop moneyed interests from imposing public ‘collateral damage’ while pursuing private profits. Silk-suited spin doctors use it to imply that tough, brave heroes like mountaintop-removal foe Judy Bonds are really just spoiled, selfish airheads. It’s a badge of honor, not a slur.”

I remember when NIMBYs like the ones who spoke out against Three-Mile Island were environmental heroes — after all, isn’t the environmental mantra, “Think globally, act locally?” What could be more local than the mountaintops in our backyard?

I understand that Erb’s commentary was his personal opinion and does not reflect the position of WENOCA. But I am happy to see people with documented, demonstrable pro-environment bias willing to say, “Wait a minute — what are we proposing here?”

As environmentalists, we should not simply be seeking alternatives – we should be seeking “better” alternatives.

The easiest way to see Droz’s commentary (as you have to search the archives at the Asheville Citizen-Times) is to Google John Droz wind power citizen-times. To see Erb’s piece go to www.mountainx.com/opinion/2010/ 052610wind_power_or_hot_air/.

A little spring cleaning

It was a busy weekend and there’s a busy weekend coming up, so I’m going to use this week’s column to clear my desk:

Watershed hike

Saturday, April 24, was our annual spring pilgrimage into the town of Waynesville’s 8,000-plus acre watershed. Following protocol initiated for last year’s fall hike, the town offered two hikes this spring — an early (7 to 9 a.m.) birdwalk followed by the regular hike at 9 a.m.

The birdwalk was successful and problematic. We were greeted by a chorus of newly arrived migrants, alas, most were binocular-shy and good looks were hard to come by despite the fact that one black-and-white warbler nearly took my hat off as he buzzed the group to get a better look. I think we may add a little more time to the birdwalks in the future, and, hopefully that will let us get some better looks.

Some of the warblers we saw and/or heard included black-and-white, black-throated blue, black-throated green, northern parula, ovenbird, Louisiana waterthrush and hooded. Other migrants included blue-headed vireo, red-eyed vireo, wood thrush and scarlet tanager.

When we got back to the treatment plant at 9 a.m. to meet with the rest of the hikers, rain was looking imminent. But the mayor showed up and the skies parted, and we hiked off into a wonderful spring morning. Both hikes were once again at or near capacity, attesting to the keen public interest in the watershed.

This year’s hike pointed out a fact that many of who live and hike in these beautiful mountains sometimes take for granted. One doesn’t hike very far or very long in these mountains without going uphill. Most of the watershed hikes are out – uphill on moderate grades on old logging roads – and back downhill. One of this year’s participants with a mild heart condition found the uphill a bit too strenuous for his comfort.

On the town’s website where you sign up for the hike it states, “Each hike is moderately strenuous and will be up to 5 miles in length and 5 hours in duration.” Please be sure you’re accustomed to a 5-mile stroll in the mountains before signing up for the hike.

Bear time

With the greening of the mountains every spring comes the waking and stirring of sleepy hungry bears.

Last Friday I was in the Harmon Den area of the French Broad District of the Pisgah National Forest locating bird survey points. I was deep in the forest on a Forest Service road paying more attention to my GPS unit than my surroundings when some movement in the forest caught my eye. About a hundred yards to my left, mamma bear was herding her two cubs out of harm’s way.

The bears had nothing to fear from me, but, of course, mamma didn’t know that. The point is that hungry bears foraging are sometimes not as alert as usual and the chances of you getting a little too close for comfort are increased. So if you’re out there remember to keep your head up and if you need a little bear etiquette reminder check out http://www.yoursmokies.com/blackbearsinsmokies.html.

Birding for the Arts

Ah, the roar of the grease paint and the smell of the crowd! Toss those scripts and we’ll ad lib our way across the mountains seeking out returning neotropical migrants and year-round mountain birds from Canada warblers to Carolina chickadees. This annual Haywood County Arts Council benefit is great fun and fills up fast. Tomorrow is the last day for registration. For more information visit the

Haywood County Arts Council office, 86 N. Main St., call 828.452.0593 or visit www.haywoodarts.org.

Pug catcher

Early last week, we were inundated with small gray moths. You couldn’t open a door without two or three coming inside. Moths inside are cool for Izzy, Maddy and the cat — all like to play with them.

One evening, at dusk, Maddy took her bug cage and went out on the deck. In about 10 minutes she was back with a cage full of moths. My curiosity piqued, I went downstairs to Google “little gray moth” to see if I could put a name with the fuzzy little face.

Next I heard a grownup “Wow” coming from upstairs. My wife appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “I just saw a little gray bird fly or jump from the dogwood tree to one of the big trees and back,” she said.

I went upstairs to look and there, perched on the dogwood, was an eastern screech owl. Sitting on a bare dogwood limb framed by the dim twilight, the owl looked elfin. It soon launched itself to the side of a large locust, then back to the dogwood; then to a grapevine and back to the dogwood. After a couple more of these sorties, I realized the owl was feeding on the moths.

We called the kids in and for 15 or 20 minutes Izzy, Maddy, Mom and I watched as the little owl tracked moths, then launched itself to tree, or branch, or grapevine in pursuit of the tiny morsel and then returned fly-catcher-like to its perch on the dogwood. While the owl appeared gray in the dusk, a look through binoculars revealed that it was a red-phase bird.

Now there were two mysteries. What was this little moth engulfing our home and enticing screech owls and how common was this fly-catching behavior? I quickly realized I was in over my antennae trying to Google this moth. Do you have any idea how many different little gray moths there are in the world? So I decided to rely on the “old-fashioned” way of seeking information — I asked someone smarter than me.

Paul Super, science coordinator at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s Appalachian Highlands Learning Center at Purchase Knob, identified the moth as Eupithecia sp. — common name pug. He noted that it is very difficult to separate the different species of pugs. Super said there were at least a dozen species of pugs in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the most prevalent by far was the common pug, E. miserulata.

This tiny gray moth has a wingspan of less than an inch. The grayish wings have small disc-like black dots. The common pug ranges from Florida to Nova Scotia and west to Texas. There is also a western population in California and Washington. It overwinters as a pupa, probably accounting for its early spring flight.

As for screech owls catching bugs, it seems insects are a large part of this little character’s diet. During a 1927 study in Nebraska, eight screech owls were dissected. Those stomachs contained 210 locusts, 2,757 other insects, 2 mice and 1 bird.

Renowned ornithologist George M. Sutton wrote about his encounter with a fly-catching screech owl. “At first we were somewhat mystified by her actions. Soon we made out, however, that she was capturing insects, which were flying about the peripheral twigs of the tree. Some of these she evidently snatched from the twigs or leaves with her feet; others she caught in mid-air, with her beak. Since I had never known Screech Owls to capture prey thus I changed my position so as to be able to see the bird more clearly. From my new station under the elm tree I saw the bird catch thus, Flycatcher-wise, at least twenty insects, most, if not all of them, the large beetles locally called June bugs or May beetles.”

All anyone has to do to learn something new in nature is pay attention.

Scientist-science

Paige Barlow is a University of Georgia PhD candidate working out of the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in Otto, outside of Franklin. Barlow is researching the effects of land use on different species of birds in Macon County.

It’s no secret that birds and bird populations around the world are facing serious challenges. A recent article by Cagan H. Sekercioglu of the Stanford Center for Conservation biology published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that up to 14 percent of all bird species may be extinct or facing extinction by 2100. And even birds not in imminent threat of extinction are experiencing serious population declines. According to Sekercioglu and his co-authors, total bird populations are estimated to have fallen by nearly 25 percent since 1500. Habitat loss along with climate change and the spread of invasive species are perceived to be major contributors to these avian woes.

Birds are colorful, fascinating, accessible creatures. These attributes have combined to make birding or birdwatching one of the most popular recreational pursuits and/or hobbies in the world. Whether you’re a “lister,” globetrotting to get to 601 species, or a weekend warrior, spending your leisure time in pursuit of fleeting glances and mellifluous warbles, or a backyard feeder enjoying the antics of chickadees, titmice and hummingbirds through your kitchen window, our feathered friends are sure to please.

Biologists, ornithologists and researchers have taken advantage of the public’s interest in our avian neighbors to create numerous ‘citizen-science” projects like the Christmas Bird Count, the Great Backyard Bird Count, International Migration Day, Project Feeder Watch and many more. These events are widely publicized and hugely popular.

While Barlow will be the primary researcher in the field and at the computer — where she hopes to construct mathematical models from her data — she is seeking public input. Barlow noted that while she would be researching the effects of land use on bird species she also wanted to “... direct my research so that it is interesting and helpful for the residents of Macon County.” To that effect, she has created a survey that lists bird species by habitat and migration behavior. She encourages interested parties to go to www.surveymonkey.com/s/9N6YBPC and fill out the survey.

Barlow said there are about 100 species listed on the survey but that would be whittled down to a subset of 20 to 30 species. According to Barlow some of the birds generating a lot of interest to date include Swainson’s warbler, cerulean warbler, golden-winged warbler, winter wren, Bewick’s wren and eastern meadowlark.

The project will likely span at least three seasons, according to Barlow. The first season will focus on Macon County but will expand after that. Barlow hopes to develop occupancy models based on environmental factors that will be useful across the Southern Appalachians. She encourages everyone who is interested to visit the survey Web site. If you have questions or would like more information you can contact Barlow at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 832.457.4423.

Don Hendershot can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.