Rich- great topic!
All-
I'm teaching the laboratory for Ornithology to 20 undergraduates this
semester and this is definitely my favorite time of the year.
I have assigned the students one of two projects, either a "digiscoping"
project, or a "sound recording" project, so I've been forced to think of
some simple-but-interesting questions that they can answer in a short amoun=
t
of time spent in the field. In preparation for the class, of course, I had
to take out the Sennheiser, Marantz PMD 670, Leica spotting scope and camer=
a
(lent to us from Leica Sport Optics for the course) and give them all a tes=
t
run :)
Several species have been singing consistently for the last month, includin=
g
White-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren and House Finch.
White-throated Sparrow has become more vocal in the last couple of weeks, a=
s
have the Northern Cardinals and now the Chickadees have begun in earnest
(they were calling for the last month, but no songs). Interestingly, we're
right in the hybrid zone for Black-capped and Carolina Chickadees, and two
mornings ago I had both songs coming from two different parts of the forest=
,
each with at least two individuals counter-singing...so one of the question=
s
becomes, are they hybrids? or are they one of the species who has learned
the other's song? and if so, which one??? That's one of the questions my
students hope to investigate.
My wife and I live on a nature preserve owned by Rutgers University (where
we're graduate students). On the property is the oldest Old Field Successio=
n
Study in North America, whereby farm fields have been monitored since 1955
to document their succession back to mature forest. Behind the caretaker
house where we live, there are several fields which we maintain in early
succession (as a living classroom) and for the last two nights the American
Woodcocks have returned to display in the fields just before dark. I was
able to record them last night, and I will post this to my website sometime
today. Unfortunately the next few nights are looking cold, and I don't thin=
k
the woodcocks will be out, but there's no hiding the fact that spring is
approaching! Pretty soon the Prairie Warblers, Blue-winged Warblers,
Chipping Sparrows, and all the other breeders of the New Jersey Piedmont
will be coming up from the southern United States and the Tropics to play
their part in this annual ritual of reproduction and passage of the genes
which in turn insure their progeny repeat the process in the following
years.
Such a beautiful and magnificent process it is, that a smile comes to my
face even before I awake to the first notes of the dawn chorus.
Good Birding Listening and Wondering!
David
On 3/5/07, Rich Peet <> wrote:
>
> If you are like me you watch spring like a hawk.
> This weekend with the clear after the snow we are now getting the mate
> calls of Northern Cardinal and Slate-backed Junco.
> The homestead yesterday from 45.0 N in MN at
> http://home.comcast.net/~richpeet/snow.jpg<http://home.comcast.net/%7Eric=
hpeet/snow.jpg>
>
> Tell us about your state of spring, or fall.
>
> Rich
>
>
>
--
David A. La Puma
Ph.D. Candidate
Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources
Plant Physiology Building
1 College Farm Road
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1582
Phone: 732-932-3313
email 1:
email 2:
lab website: http://rci.rutgers.edu/~jlockwoo
personal website: http://www.woodcreeper.com
photo website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/woodcreeper
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