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It's late April and spring "bird count day"; birders across the Triangle have scattered to assigned locations to record their sightings.
Birding is one of the few remaining arenas in which enthusiasts contribute to the scientific knowledge base. Bird counts like this one, sponsored by the Carolina Bird Club, and the National Audubon Society's Christmas bird count are conducted throughout the country. The results will be published in the regional birding publication The Chat and made available to ornithologists and other scientists. Years and years of records from the same locations may reveal patterns of long-term decline (or increase) of species or changes in distribution that reflect the effects of climate change and habitat loss.
William Schlesinger has volunteered to monitor the Al Buehler Trail, which circles the Duke Golf Course. A scientist by training (he recently stepped down as dean of the Nicholas School), he is here today in his capacity as longtime avid birder. While early- morning joggers circumnavigate the trail in twenty minutes, he and a companion take nearly three hours, scanning the treetops, forging into the brush, and occasionally pishing—making pshhh-pshhh-pshhh sounds to attract the attention of shier species.
While the dream of every birder is to report a rare sighting, Schlesinger's survey produces a healthy list of the usual suspects: a magnificent red-shouldered hawk, newly arrived woodland birds like red-eyed vireos and wood thrushes, a handful of migrating warblers, and, in the newly constructed wetland area, a spotted sandpiper and belted kingfisher. Nothing magical, but a solid contribution to Citizen Science.
Pippen and Cook are unofficial leaders of a loose coalition of passionate Duke birders, most of whom participated in one of the more unusual bird events at Duke. Late on a February afternoon last year, Duke senior Ted Gilliland, an environmental-science major, was headed to a party at the Levine Science Research Center when he spied a Cape May warbler in a scrubby tree near the building. "I saw a flash of orange," recalls Gilliland, who lives in Durham and has plans to write a book on communication and the environment. "It was pretty well plumaged for a winter bird."
Not only that, but it had no business being in Piedmont North Carolina in February. "It should have been in the West Indies," says Pippen. Gilliland quickly put out the word to birders, including Pippen, Cook, biology graduate student Carl Rothfels, and Stuart Pimm, the Doris Duke Professor of conservation ecology at the Nicholas School. That afternoon, and for several days afterward, the LSRC courtyard was patrolled by people with binoculars and digital cameras.
And their efforts were rewarded. Cook, who missed the original Cape May sighting, kept his eye on the tree. "A couple of days after the first sighting, I noticed that the tree was oozing sap, and in flew a young orange-crowned warbler checking out the sap wells. He left after a few seconds. Then I heard a black-throated blue warbler calling, making its tk-tk sound, and it flew in, too, and checked out the same sap wells."
Visiting birders would probably never be able to duplicate this trio of sightings. According to Pippen, black-throated blue warblers rarely winter in North Carolina. Orange-crowned warblers do occasionally, but almost always in coastal regions. "This kind of thing is a truly rare event at Duke," he says. "But it still could also happen more often than we think."
Every birder dreams of the "great" sighting: the life bird, the vagrant that has gotten kicked hundreds of miles out of its territory by hurricane winds or its own faulty navigation system. But, in truth, birders rarely have a bad day. The hawk at nest, the answering screech owl, the first red-eyed vireo of the season, the flock of migrating warblers—these are all noteworthy sightings. And they are birds that are accessible in or around Duke, to even novice birders.
The next time you stroll on campus, at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, or in Duke Forest, don't forget to bring your binoculars. The birds are out there, if you take the time to look for them.
Dellwo writes about the environment and nature for publications including Dukeenvironment magazine and North Carolina Signature. A longtime Durham resident, she now lives and birds in New York's Hudson Valley
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