The Carolinas, Better than expected!
The first leg of my collecting trip down south began in Raleigh North Carolina at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
the collections of the NCMS where different from those I have seen before. Unlike the endless rows of cabinets at the American Museum of Natural History, the basement of the NCMS seemed like some sort of mad ornithologist's living room. sure it had no shortage of uniform green cabinets, but old museum exhibits capped each row and covered the walls.
in plexiglass cases stood freezes of natural life, a taxidermy cormorant feeding it's young, the faded skins of two asian pheasants roosting in a dead tree, a flock of wild turkeys (all different subspecies and localities) flying across a wall. These retired exhibits where cool and all, but as usual, it was to the pigeon cabinet for me.
after measuring what I could find in the cabinet that fit the study, the curator took me up a floor to the specimen prep area. specimen prep areas are usually filled with not-fully preserved bird skins waiting to be stuffed, but this one was filled with a chipper group of museum mamologists making a bat trap.
here, I was able to mesure a few specimens from the area's massive chest freezers, it was only a few (the rock pigeons where outnumbered by several, more obscure species).
from here, it was time to move on to South Carolina. we had two sites just in case one did not work, one was a public beach, the other the back of a bird feed store.
the bird feed store was the first place visited, unfortunately, because the property's landlord had forced the removal of the store's bird feeders, no pigeons could be found.
the beach was a different story. 100 or more pigeons lived on a fishing pier, and the park manager was more than happy to have someone put a fear of humans into them.
the people where also much better at not stepping on the trap here, and did not seem to have any interest in ending my trapping sessions.
using a combination of seeds, french fries and bread, where able to capture 7 pigeons successfully, with two escapes. unfortunately, pesky boat tailed grackles, fish crows and laughing gulls also took interest in my bait. one boat tailed got stuck in the net so heavily, it needed to be cut free. the hole made from this cutting which I repaired on the spot with a ripped up rubber glove, was the reason for one of the pigeon escapes.
of the seven pigeons we caught, four where trapped at the same time. when I began to drop fries to a flock of about four birds, the other 90-something members of the flock came barreling down from the pier looking for a handout. I was only able to capture 4 due to the fact that when more birds where in the trap, many where standing at the rim of the net, and would have been hurt if the trap was deployed. all of the other birds needed to be slowly lured in to a trap covered in dragline grass, filled with seed and along typical feeding routes.
the pigeons here where none-too happy to be caught, more so than the ones at other sites. One even let out screams of furry..... even though pigeon screams of furry are soft, yet forceful coos.
while measuring my last pigeon of the day, someone came up to me. I assumed this was another person confused at why I had a struggling pigeon in my hands. instead, she wanted an interview...... with me
yes, it's a long link, but if you want a video of me with no shoes gesturing with a plastic pigeon decoy, here it is:
as of writing this lab note, I am sitting in a hotel room in Marathon key Florida, waiting for a local biologist to give me a call on where I should meet her so I don't kill anything with my trap.
as for now, sc4 wants to say bye,
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