One thing became clear during my little bird feeding experiment. If you’re looking for one birdseed that will attract just about any bird, black oil sunflower seed is the bomb.

Remember a few weeks back when, disillusioned about the high price of birdseed, I decided to experiment with more frugal scenarios? I have a few thoughts on the subject but first I want to thank a couple of readers for responding to my plea for help.

Cindy Ramsey from Acworth, Ga., emailed to commiserate with me.

Cindy said she found a little relief through her local Wildbirds Unlimited franchise’s “Daily Saving Club.” I don’t know if all Wildbirds Unlimiteds offer such a plan but it sure wouldn’t hurt to ask.

Charles Hand of Canton gets special recognition for actually taking the time to pen a note and drop it in the mail. Mr. Hand adds microwaveable popcorn and crumpled unsalted crackers to stretch his bird rations. He didn’t mention if the popcorn was popped or unpopped. Hopefully the popcorn is also unsalted and if unpopped, it can be parboiled to soften the kernels some.

My first experiment was a rather dismal failure. I cut the black oil sunflower with cracked corn. Almost every species picked the sunflower seeds out completely before settling on any corn. Even the mourning doves preferred the sunflower. The best part of the corn experiment is that I now have a stash of corn for when the girl and I go to Lake Junaluska to feed the ducks.

Mixing black oil sunflower with generic “mixed” birdseed could help stretch your birdfood-dollar but once again the sunflower seed will be picked out and once it’s gone feeder visitation drops dramatically.

Nyjer thistle is the black oil of the finch world. Put nyjer seed in one feeder and small “finch food” in another and you will have to wait till the thistle is basically gone before there will be any takers at the finch food buffet. Put just the finch food out and you get the occasional interested siskin and/or goldfinch but they quickly migrate over to the sunflower seed.

Here’s the plan I’ve come up with for my feeders. I will purchase black oil sunflower, nyjer and the commercial “mixed” birdseed. But I will decide when and how much the little buggers eat. Just because there are feeders out there doesn’t mean they have to be topped off every time they get a little low.

As I’ve mentioned before, even birds that frequent your feeders get nearly 80 percent of their nutrition from the wild. Your feeders are just a part of their foraging. Most of us feed for our own enjoyment so put food out when you’re gonna be around to enjoy the birds. Morning and evening work best for me, so a little food out for the early bird and then a little dinner. And those feeders don’t have to be full — a couple of cups of sunflower seed, a little mixed seed and a little nyjer will attract a variety of birds. You can add peanut butter and/or suet too. When it’s gone the birds will forage on but if they know there’s gonna be dinner you will get some takers then, too.

And if you’re a late riser and like to putter around between 10 and two, fill your feeders then and it’s my guess that once the birds get accustomed to your buffet hours they will show up for vittles.

And on the “good news” front – I found black oil sunflower seed for $9 for a 25-pound bag at Pioneer Feed and Seed at the Hazelwood exit in Waynesville.

The results are in and the fourth annual Hendershot Birdapalooza at Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Monroe, Louisiana was the most successful to date. We ended the day (6.5 hrs.) with 66 species.

The success was due, in no small part, to the fact that we had help from two experienced local birders. If you are traveling somewhere to bird there is no substitute for local knowledge. And birders are generally quite accommodating and willing to help out of town birders.

As is my habit, I began perusing the Louisiana birding listserv a couple of weeks prior to departing for Black Bayou. I noticed one birder, Steve Pagans, was doing a lot of surveys in the Monroe and Bastrop areas. When I saw that he had found federally endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers near Bastrop, where my brother and I would be staying, I contacted him and asked for directions, which he provided.

In the “it’s a small birder-world” department, my brother also contacted Pagans. To their surprise they found that they had met before at Red Slough Wildlife Management Area in southeastern Oklahoma, where my brother, Ford, sometimes assists with birding and/or natural history programs.

Steve and birding partner, Joan Brown, who had also been to Red Slough, took time from their busy birding schedule — they are compiling winter quad reports for Louisiana State University — to meet us around 7:30 a.m. Saturday at the visitor’s center at Black Bayou.

They spent the better part of the morning birding with us, which was beneficial on two levels. First, the more eyes and ears the better when you’re conducting a whirlwind tour like we were at Black Bayou. And secondly, with their knowledge of Black Bayou they could direct us to the birdier spots.

We want to express our gratitude to Steve and Joan for taking the time from their quad surveys to join us at Black Bayou. Especially, thank you for calling us with the loggerhead shrike you saw as you were exiting the refuge — it was the only one for the day.

There were misses as there always are on these one-day affairs. I believe this was the first year that we failed to see a hairy woodpecker. But the first-time species more than made up for the misses. Our firsts for the fourth annual Birdapalooza included Eurasian collared-dove, great-horned owl, purple martin, palm warbler (25) and anhinga.

The Birdapalooza is always a fun trip. The opportunity to visit friends and family is always worth it, even if birding conditions are lousy as they have sometimes been. But this trip, the weather was great — a little cool and windy at the start but clear skies and mild temps. Plus we got to make two new birding friends. Thanks again to Steve and Joan.

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

The mountain section of the North Carolina Birding Trail (NCBT) is complete and the Mountain Region Trail Guide, describing, with directions, the 105 sites along the trail should be available by early summer 2009.

Many of those sites are in Haywood and surrounding counties. They include Lake Junaluska, Max Patch and the southern Great Balsam Mountains adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway in Haywood County. Other area sites include the Little Tennessee River Greenway, Tessentee Farm and the Highlands Biological Station in Macon County, plus Kituwah (formerly Ferguson Fields) in Swain County and Stecoah Gap and the Cherohala Skyway from Graham County. The Mountain Region Trail Guide will join the already completed Coastal Guide and Piedmont Guide in linking outstanding birding sites across the Old Home State. North Carolina’s myriad and diverse habitats from coastal barrier islands to 6,000-foot mountaintops provide nesting sites and stopover sites for more than 450 species of resident and/or migratory birds.

It has been the mission of the NCBT, since its creation in 2003, “To conserve and enhance North Carolina’s bird habitat by promoting sustainable bird-watching activities, economic opportunities and conservation education.”

Part of NCBT’s vision statement includes, “Our unique geographic setting along the Atlantic coast flyway provides both breeding and wintering grounds for many birds, making North Carolina a premiere bird-watching destination. Yet this rich natural heritage is largely untapped as an economic resource for promoting nature-based tourism. The North Carolina Birding Trail (NCBT) will provide a common thread to tie together bird-watching, nature-based tourism and our great natural and cultural resources for the economic benefit of our citizens.”

Part of that common thread is NCBT’s “Birder Friendly Business & Birder Friendly Community” training. The program provides tools and training for businesses and communities along the trail, which will allow them to anticipate birders’ needs and wants and devise appropriate marketing plans.

A 2007 National Survey on Recreation and the Environment noted that 81.1 million Americans participate in some form of birding activity. And a 2006 US Fish & Wildlife study reported that Americans spent nearly $45 billion in 2006 on bird-related activities. North Carolina reported that 2.6 million wildlife watchers in the state spent $916 million.

According to Dr. Stacy Tomas, North Carolina State University assistant professor of parks, recreation and tourism management the birding trail will give communities a chance to utilize the natural resources in their area as an economic tool.

“We are the third fastest urbanizing state in the country, so the birding trail gives us a way to keep our open spaces open and develop our economy,” Tomas said.

If you are a business owner, community leader or simply curious you can find out more about NCBT’s birder friendly business and/or community programs by attending a March 19 workshop at the Haywood County Extension Center in Waynesville. To register contact Robert Hawk at 828.456.3575 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

To date, Haywood and Jackson counties are lagging behind neighboring counties when it comes to birder/community friendly certified businesses. The Haywood County Cooperative Extension in Waynesville is the only county entity listed at NCBT’s Web site and the only one for Jackson County is the Cherokee Chamber of Commerce. That compares to Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center in Robbinsville, Fontana Village, God’s Garden, Taylor’s Greenhouse, Appalachian Inn Bed & Breakfast and Nantahala National Forest all in Robbinsville for Graham County. And Land Trust for the Little Tennessee in Franklin, 4 1/2 Street Inn, Highlands Hiker, Highlands Area Chamber of Commerce, Highlands Plateau Audubon Society, Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust, Jackson-Macon Conservation alliance, Morningside Bed and Breakfast, The Bird Barn, The Chandler Inn and Whiteside Cove Cottage all of Highlands, in Macon County.

Remember when it comes to birders’ bucks — the early bird gets the worm.

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

Last week I wrote about the spiraling cost of birdseed and about experimenting with different seed and protocol for those bird-feeding aficionados who, like me, are on a budget. The idea was to try and find a way to still enjoy birds and not wreck your budget. However, last night I heard a short blurb on WLOS’s 11 p.m. news that reminded me there is a time to stop feeding the birds.

The message was just a couple of sentences stating that dead birds were being reported at feeders across Western North Carolina. If there were details regarding numbers of birds and/or how widespread the phenomenon was, I didn’t catch them. The anchor did note that most of the birds were pine siskins. Pine siskins are small (goldfinch-sized) brown-streaked finches with patches of yellow in the wings. This has been a banner winter for siskins across the Carolinas and much of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast U.S. When they come, they usually come in hordes. I have heard of people with a hundred or more clamoring for spots at the feeder this year.

Anytime you find dead birds at your feeder the prudent thing to do is discard all seed in the feeders — put it in the trash, don’t just toss it on the ground, the birds will still find it — and then thoroughly clean and disinfect your feeders. A solution of nine parts water and one part bleach is generally recommended. Use a brush and scrub the feeders well. If you are cleaning tube feeders you may want to fill a sink and submerse the feeder. A couple of capfuls of bleach to each gallon of water should suffice. If you are washing wooden feeders and you like the finish you should use a disinfectant other than bleach. You can generally find different brands of disinfectant at specialty stores that cater to birders and/or bird feeders. Or you can use a 5 percent white vinegar to water solution or tea tree oil, about a capful in a gallon of warm soapy water. And if you simply can’t wait to get your feeders back up, use a hair dryer or heat gun to dry them.

Check your birdseed before refilling your feeders. If you see mold or mildew or even if the seed feels damp and/or is clumpy, dispose of it and get fresh seed.

If you’ve done all this and still find dead birds, take your feeders down for a week or so. There may be some type of communicable avian pathogen present and even though your feeders and food are clean and disinfected, simply attracting large numbers of birds to a small area can help spread diseases. This is especially true of gregarious birds like pine siskins. So taking your feeders down and letting the birds disperse will help lessen the impact of any kind of avian sickness.

And as we discussed last week — we feed birds primarily for our benefit. They are perfectly capable of fending for themselves in the wild.

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

Anyone who reads this column regularly knows I am a fan of backyard bird feeding. The constant feathered activity just a few feet from the kitchen window is a constant reminder of the incredible diversity that spins around the sun with us on our big blue marble.

Whether it is the almost constant back and forth of chickadees and titmice or the raucous inverted antics of nuthatches, hardly a minute passes without some type of activity at the feeders. The middle of April means it’s time to get the hummingbird feeders up. And if we’ve procrastinated the hum of wings and squeaks at the windows will remind us. Once the hummers are here, it’s not long before the freshly plumaged brightly colored rose-breasted grosbeak will appear at the black oil sunflower seeds. It is not uncommon, in migration, to have groups of four or five grosbeaks at the feeders together. As spring rolls on and territories are carved out grosbeak numbers will dwindle down to one or two pair that will nest in the woods around my house. And throughout the summer a flash of color will announce when one of the pairs has dropped in for the buffet.

The flocks of juncos and morning doves that fed all winter on the ground beneath the feeders will also dwindle in number as spring rolls on till only nesting pairs are left. White-throated sparrows will disappear but song sparrows will remain along with nesting cardinals and towhees.

When autumn rolls around there will be an explosion of hummingbirds as nesters and their offspring battle with migrants over nectar-rights. Cardinals, towhees, titmice and all tired of bill-feeding hungry fledglings will bring them to the feeders and teach them the ropes.

Spring and fall migrations are generally the best time to keep an eye out for some not so common visitors. Last March I was surprised to have a pine warbler show up, nibbling at my peanut butter mixture. I usually get fox sparrows passing through both spring and fall.

Winter means finches — purple and house come and go sporadically and in varying numbers. Goldfinches in good numbers are common most of the winter. But the little buggers that will eat you out of house and home are the pine siskins. And while we’ve not had one in quite some time, there are those winter irruptions that can bring evening grosbeaks and their apparently unending appetites.

I feed birds for the same reason most people do — my enjoyment. I love having these beautiful wild creatures at arm’s length. I’m sure they are more than capable of fending for themselves. And there is research that shows that even birds that frequent your feeders on a daily basis get as much as 70 to 80 percent of their nourishment from wild foods.

But presently there is a fly in the ointment. The price of birdseed, especially popular birdseed like black oil sunflower and nyjer or niger thistle has doubled. I don’t know how many of my fellow bird feeders out there are on a budget these days, but for me $16 for a 25-pound bag of sunflower seed is pushing it, especially in the winter when I can go through a bag in a couple of weeks.

During the next couple of weeks I am going to experiment, in a completely capricious and subjective manner, on ways to maintain numbers and diversity of bird species while slashing my birdseed budget. If any of you out there have done this and would like to share your results please email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

I will post my results in the Naturalist’s Corner in a couple of weeks.

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

It’s late January and it’s 15 degrees outside, snow is flying, the Alberta Clipper has the huge yellow buckeye swaying like the mast of a sailing ship but inside that yellow buckeye, a good 50 feet above ground in a cramped clawed out leaf-lined den, life will not be denied. A black bear is giving birth to two tiny, sightless, hairless cubs weighing maybe 10 ounces each. The cubs will be shifted quickly to their mother’s breast where their small round mouths will find teats and warm rich milk.

Black bear are found throughout North America, in suitable habitat, from Canada to Florida and from coast to coast. Most black bears hibernate for a period of time during winter. That time could range from seven months in Alaska and Canada to three to four months in the Southern Appalachians to zero months in Florida.

Pregnant females are generally the earliest hibernators followed by barren females and females with yearlings and lastly males. Black bears usually give birth from late December through February, with most cubs being born from mid- to late January. Even in southern states like Louisiana and Florida where bears can be active year round, pregnant females “den up” to give birth.

A den can be anything from a pile of leaves and sticks in a rhododendron slick for a bear in the Appalachians to a rock crevice in Maine to a cave in the Rockies to the roots of an upturned spruce in Canada. Pregnant females tend to select the most secure and protected dens and it is common in the Appalachians for these dens to be in cavities in large, mature hardwoods.

The debate, “Are black bears ‘true’ hibernators?” is still out there but it seems most wildlife biologists are expanding their definition and/or concept of hibernation to include black bears. One of the main sticking points is the fact that the bear’s body temperature does not drop as dramatically as that of other hibernators.

While the bear’s heart rate in hibernation may drop from between 45 to 70 beats per minute to between eight and 12 its temperature may only drop from 100 degrees Fahrenheit to between 86 and 96 degrees Fahrenheit.

It’s this relatively high body temperature that allows the mother bear to be alert enough to care for her young. And that can be a demanding task. Newborns will nurse every 10 minutes or so. As they get older the intervals between feedings will grow giving the mom time to nap while the cubs nap.

It is also the bear’s body temperature that keeps the cubs warm. There is often little difference between outside temperatures and the temperature in the den. The mom turns her thickly furred back to the cold and curls up in a ball bringing the cubs close to her breast. Her body heat and warm breath help keep the cups warm. By the time the cubs are six weeks old they are also covered with a dense fur.

The bear’s milk is metabolized directly from body fat and is nearly twice as high in calories as human milk and/or cow’s milk. The bear may lose as much as half a pound a day in weight as it converts its body fat into milk. The mother bear may produce as much as 50 pounds of milk before the winter is over.

Female black bears become sexually mature at around four years old. They typically have one cub their first pregnancy. Since they care for their cubs for a year or so, sexually mature bears generally give birth every other year. Litters can range from one to four with two being the average here in the Southern Appalachians.

As the cubs grow they become more and more active in the den and if the den is at ground level, they may actually venture outside occasionally by early March. Most bear families are out of the den by late April. The cubs will weigh between nine and 12 pounds and it will be time for mom to find some food and show them the ropes.

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

Happy new ivory-billed search in 2009

May old woodpeckers be forgot and never photoshopped.

A $50,000 reward has been offered for a definitive photo of an ivory-billed woodpecker. I’m thinking that photo might be worth a buck or two more.

Should old woodpeckers be forgot and left to auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear

Forauld lang syne

We’ll take a cup of kindness yet

For old ivory-bills

Documenting the “Lord God” bird has proved as vexing for the apostles from the Cathedral of Birding, a.k.a., the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, as documenting papal infallibility has for the Vatican. And this year there is a hint of resignation coming from Cornell.

After the flush of its announcement of the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker, Cornell had this to say in its 2004-2005 report, “The bird captured on video is clearly an Ivory-billed Woodpecker,” said John Fitzpatrick, the Science article’s lead author, and director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. “Amazingly, America may have another chance to protect the future of this spectacular bird and the awesome forests in which it lives.”

The 2005-2006 summary was a little more guarded, “In summary, the visual and acoustic evidence collected during 2005–06 gives us some hope that a small number of IBWOs may persist in the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas.”

Then came the 2006-2007 season. “The Lab and its partners concluded the 2006–07 field season in Arkansas at the end of April with no additional definitive evidence of ivory-bills to complement the data gathered in 2004 and 2005.”

The 2007-2008 season was summed up — “Searchers documented more possible sightings and possible ivory-bill double knocks heard, but the definitive photograph, like the bird itself, remained elusive.”

And as Cornell takes to the woods this season — “If no birds are confirmed, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology will not send an organized team into the field next year.”

And surely you’ll have your double knock

And surely I’ll have my kent

And there’ll be some keen cavities

For old ivory-bills

I guess Cornell has grown weary of those Arkansas winters and this year is going to sacrifice by concentrating on sunny Florida — “Up till now, we’ve concentrated on bottomland hardwood swamps and forests,” says Ron Rohrbaugh, director of the Lab’s Ivory-billed Woodpecker Research Project. “But there’s a huge area of pristine mangrove forest in southern Florida that could support ivory-bills. In fact, the historical record shows the birds did live there and that collectors took specimens from the area. Although there haven’t been any confirmed sightings there recently, the great habitat certainly warrants a closer look.”

And with support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other partners searches will take place in eastern Arkansas, western Tennessee, southern Illinois, the Florida panhandle, South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and east Texas.

And individuals, like Mike Collins in the Pearl River, will continue their personal quests to morph the romantic, enigmatic grail-bird into a lucid, palpable creature that flies not only through our imagination but through remnants of wilderness that remind them of a long-ago home.

But for me:

I’ll buy me my pint cup

And gladly buy you, yours

And we’ll take a cup of kindness yet

For old ivory-bills

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

Like ships that collide in the middle of the night, “midnight rules” and their undoing perpetuate and reinforce philosophical and ideological divisions in this country while enhancing partisanship and strengthening the hold and influence politicians and power brokers have over OUR economy, OUR liberties and OUR environment.

Midnight rules or regulations are federal regulations that can be enacted through the administration and executive agencies without congressional oversight. It’s a political game played by both parties. The term midnight rules or midnight regulations actually came into vogue at the end of Democrat Jimmy Carter’s last term when his administration set a record for midnight rules by producing more than 10,000 pages of new rules between Election Day 1980 and the January 1981 inauguration of Ronald Reagan. The term is in reference to the “midnight judges” appointed by John Adams as he departed the White House.

As would be expected, the volume of midnight rules rises exponentially when the incoming president is from a different party than the outgoing. Bush Sr. left a load for Bill Clinton, Clinton rolled up “midnight” honors with more than 26,000 pages of rules, and now G.W. Bush is passing on the favor to president-elect Obama.

We become complicit in the game when we start lauding midnight rules that are in line with our philosophies while decrying those rules we find objectionable. I am certainly included in the above “we.”

When I look at some of the midnight rules this lame-duck president has signed, I surely hope Obama has the will to address them:

• The rule that would allow federal land-use managers to approve highway, mining and logging projects without consulting with federal and/or biological experts on the effects of such projects.

• The rule that allows mountaintop mining to dump sediment nearer to streams than is currently allowed.

• The rule that allows factory farms to dump wastes in waterways without permits

• The rule that gives factory farms exemptions from reporting noxious emissions.

• The rule that would ease restrictions on power plants near national parks.

• The weakening of New Source Review regulations making it easier for industry to skirt requirements for better pollution control.

The list goes on.

And I was one who applauded Clinton’s midnight efforts to create rules that provided more environmental protection. But the truth is, the whole concept and protocol that allows midnight rules is odious.

The fact that any administration can, at the stroke of midnight, implement regulations that have profound effects on its constituents, without its constituents having any oversight, is an anathema.

Rules and regulations that affect OUR economy, OUR liberties and OUR environment demand to be vetted in daylight under full public scrutiny — not passed at midnight.

Now, pardon me while I put my soapbox back behind the curtain — for now.

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

There are almost as many reasons for watching birds as there are birders. Whether you are a backyard birder content to fill the feeders and occasionally glance out the window to see who’s flitting about or a hardcore lister, traveling the globe to tick off as many lifers as possible, there’s no denying the attraction of these amazing creatures.

For the past four years — five years total, if you count the magical, muddy, mystery tour in Louisiana back in 2002 — the devout, the convinced, the skeptical and the curious have slogged and paddled across the swamps of the Southeast in search of “Elvis.” That’s the code name given the ivory-billed woodpecker by searchers in Arkansas in 2004. Feeling constrained by the foot-sucking muck and the capricious currents of bayous, sloughs and slow southern rivers, searchers decided to take the high road during this year’s quixotic quest for the elusive Elvis.