This Week at Hilton Pond

Bill Hilton Jr.
Executive Director
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
York, South Carolina 29745 USA

The Importance of Water (22-30 November 2007)

The current lack or rain has us thinking a lot about the importance of water for birds and other wildlife, as well as the human penchant for wasting this valuable natural resource. For a photo essay on the effects of drought in the Carolinas and beyond, please visit the 22-30 November 2007 installment of "This Week at Hilton Pond" at http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek071122.html.

As always we include a tally of all birds banded and recaptured during the period, plus a few miscellaneous nature notes.

Figure 1. Raccoon (Procyon lotor) prints in newly exposed mud flats along the banks of Hilton Pond are just one indication of the seriousness of our current drought. Photograph copyright Bill Hilton Jr.

50,000 . . . And Counting: Why We Band Birds (1-7 December 2007)

We're a little late in announcing it, but during the first week of December we reached an auspicious milestone by banding our 50,000th bird at Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History. For a description of that bird and a photo essay about some things we've learned from our long-term banding program, please visit the 1-7 December 2007 installment of "This Week at Hilton Pond" at http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek071201.html .

As always we include a tally of birds banded and recaptured during the period, with assorted nature notes.

Figure 2. The most commonly captured bird at Hilton Pond Center is the house finch (Carpodacus mexicanus), so it seemed appropriate the raspberry-colored male above was our 50,000 bird banded since 1982. Photograph copyright Bill Hilton Jr.

A Southern Northern Saw-whet Owl (8-21 December 2007)

Our tenth northern saw-whet owl captured "This Week at Hilton Pond" is only the 15th ever banded in South Carolina. For a write-up about this uncommon northern visitor, please visit our photo essay for 8-21 December 2007 at http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek071208.html .

As always we include a tally of all birds banded or recaptured during the period, plus a few miscellaneous nature notes.

Figure 3. This first-year female northern saw-whet owl (Aegolius acadicus), is only about the size of an adult human's palm and weighs less than a mourning dove. Photograph copyright Bill Hilton Jr.

To help support the education, research, and conservation work of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History, please see http://www.hiltonpond.org/FundingMain.html . Editor.