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10/23/02

Nature Notebook

SMN
Birds:

Migration is winding down, winter residents and those rarities that make winter birding so interesting are beginning to appear.

° Rufous hummingbirds have been reported from Black Mountain and Winston-Salem but no contact name or number was given ( from Carolina Birds listserv 10/20)

° Rufous hummingbird @ Roan Mountain and Elizabethton in TN, no contact numbers (from Tennessee listserv 10/20)

° Calliope hummingbird @ home of Sharon Funderburk in Castalia, NC, 15 miles northwest of Rocky Mount, to view the bird contact Sharon @ 919.853.2716 (from Carolina Birds listserv 10/20)

° Roseate spoonbill Douglas Lake in Cocke County, TN off Highway 25 E. (Tennessee listserv 10/20)

° Lincoln’s sparrow, field sparrow, white-throated sparrow, swamp sparrow, eastern meadowlark, Wilson’s warbler, palm warbler, pileated woodpecker, northern flicker, downy woodpecker, yellow-bellied sapsucker, wood duck, northern harrier, red-shouldered hawk, Cooper’s hawk and sharp-shinned hawk as well as the usual suspects @ Ferguson Fields (Don Hendershot 10/20)

(Note for all you feeder watchers, SMN would be interested to know when winter feeders like pine siskins, purple finches and/or evening grosbeaks show up at your feeders)


Wildflowers:

Wildflowers are also beginning to wind down but with the warm temperatures some are lingering and some spring and summer bloomers tricked by the mild temperatures and cuing on the vernal period are blooming, I had violets in my yard.

° Morning glories are everywhere at Ferguson Fields as well as hedge bindweed, Calystegia sepium; Queen Anne’s lace, Daucus carota; is rebounding and evening primrose, Oenothera spp.; can still be found blooming and one stand of biennial gaura, Gaura biennis was noted (Ferguson Field 10/20 Don Hendershot)